


Just Your Average College Life

by AbbyStaffyIsGeek



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura and Lance are Besties, Alluratt, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Before you meet you soulmate you can only see in different shades of one colour, But only a itty bitty amount of, College AU, Completed, F/M, Fanon Matt, Fanon everyone basically, Fluff, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Happy Ending, How Do I Tag, Hunay, I swear it will be cute, I swear this is all one story not a collection of oneshots, If it were described Lance would be bottom, Insecure Lance, It just happens to be a lot of aus, Just especially him, Keith is an art student, Lance is busy af even before he had two soulmates, Langst, Lotor is an asshole, M/M, Matt is Matt I guess, Multi, Pidge doesn't have a soulmate, Polyamory, Smut is happening just no graphic descriptions, Soulmate AU, There will be swearing, There's a bunch of all of those, You have a mark where you soulmate first touches you, coffee shop AU, possible sequel in the future, shklance - Freeform, they don't care, tiny bit of angst but not much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-02-03 08:26:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 26,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12744642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbbyStaffyIsGeek/pseuds/AbbyStaffyIsGeek
Summary: It's a soulmate au cross with a college au cross with a coffee shop au. You can only see in different shades of one colour before you meet your soulmate and you have a mark where your soulmate first touches you.OrLance is a college student with two soulmate marks and a part time job at Voltron Coffee, shenanigans ensue.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Awkward_Broccoli](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Awkward_Broccoli).



Thursday 11th October, 5pm

If there was one thing Lance hated it was when his friends downplayed themselves, they were amazing, awesome, incredible humans who deserved the world- so why couldn't they see that? Well, Hunk probably already knew that he deserved the world, no, the universe, because Lance told him at every available opportunity; Hunk did the dishes? He deserves the universe. Hunk tied his shoelaces? He deserves the universe. Hunk threw up into a toilet? He deserves the universe. Which is why their current conversation was really starting to annoy poor Lancey Lance.

“There is no way on Earth someone as incredible as Shay Balmerra would even date me, let alone be my soulmate!” The tired man argued pathetically. “She is literally worth the sun, and you guys have the nerve to say I have a chance?!?”

“Hunk, buddy, my main man, why don't you think you're good enough for Shay again?”

This conversation, though it had begun with mild teasing over his friend's crush, had escalated to the point where Hunk was pacing around his and Lance's dorm room, progressively becoming more and more nervous. Lance was sat on a beanbag chair, one he could see as a dark shade of blue but had no idea what the actual colour was, arguing that his best friend was clearly Shay's soulmate, and she was definitely happy with it. At first Pidge had made a few snarky comments from their perch on Lance's bed but now they were quietly scrolling through some website on their phone, if it wasn't Instagram then why would Lance care?

“Ugh, well she's super kind and funny and sweet and she has the beautiful smile imaginable….” Hunk described, a look of wonder decorating his face and a smile of his own creeping into his lips making his currently dark and blotchy soulmate mark morph into a dimple. 

“You realise you just described yourself, right?” Asked Pidge from across the room, finally looking up from their phone with a deadpan expression lining their pale features.

“Oh… Did I really?” He laughs nervously, scratching the back of his neck and blushing at the compliment. Lance guessed that was the effect your compliments had if you only hand them out once in a blue moon, or more like once every other blue moon in Pidge's case.

“Yeah, Buddy. You did. So just get over yourself and ask for her numb-” Lance was interrupted from what was sure to be a rousing pep talk by Pidge's phone blaring out the song 'heeeyyyy brothheeeerrr’ at such an intense and sudden volume that Pidge threw the small device into the air with a yelp before regaining their wits and answering the call.

Lance knew that 'hey brother’ was Pidge's ringtone for Matt, their older brother, despite Pidge having originally set it as a parody which went something like: 'heeeyyyy gooofballllll’. It had been changed by Matt in the middle of one of his and Pidge's 'hackathons’, where he tried to break the encryption to Pidge's phone whilst they tried to hack into a government satellite using said phone. Apparently in the middle of that technological war Matt had found the time to change his ringtone and Pidge had never changed it back'.

“What is it Matt?” The teen said, pinching the bridge of their nose while Matt said something inaudible from his side of the phone. “You have a shift? Wait, it's past 5pm how the Hell are you still hungover?!?! Oh right, you're you. What kind of idiot leaves their keys at home? You can't bring that up I was 7, you're 23. Fine, I'll grab your keys for you. Yes, you better thank me. Sure I'll bring him with me.”

“Sibling troubles?” Lance smiled as his sudden words made Pidge jump with yet another yelp before she shot the Cuban man a glare that would've been frightening had it come from someone over 4ft. Scratch that, it was actually incredibly terrifying.

“Ugh, Matt is hungover so when he left the apartment for his shift at the Café he left his keys behind since he couldn't think straight through his headache. And now he's asked me to fetch them, also Allura wants to see you.” They explained as they gathered up their numerous devices scattered across Lance's dishevelled bed, neither of them paying attention to Hunk who seemed much less nervous than before and was now on the phone with Shay, sat on his own bed.

“Oh, just give me a sec!” Lance called as Pidge made their way out of the dorm. “Shay! Hunk's meeting you at Voltron Coffee next Tuesday at 8pm, bring nothing but your sweet self!” 

He then ran out of the room and down the stairs to escape the embarrassed (but mostly furious) look his best friend was giving him

__

 

Imagine you want to have a successful business, what do you do? What could possibly get you the most money? The correct answer to this question is opening up a coffee shop about 50ft away from a College and being open from 4:30 in the morning until midnight, which is exactly what Allura King did after she finished her economics degree at Castle College, proving her as a genius! She didn't even need to move that far from her dorm room since Castle College is the College she chose to open up the world's best café outside of: Voltron Coffee.

“How are my favourite customers?” Sang out Coran as soon as he spotted Pidge and Lance walk through the steamed up doors and into the crowded little café, filled to the brim with exhausted looking students and the refreshing, though slightly overpowering, smell of fresh coffee.

“Coran, Coran the Gorgeous Man! We both know you say that to all your customers.”

“Why yes, but I only truly mean it when I'm talking to you, my dear boy”

“And we both know you say that to all of them too”

“Ah, yes, well, can't make my favourite obvious, can I?” Finished the smiling man as he twirled his orange (from what Allura told Lance anyway) moustache in mock thoughtfulness and Lance wondered what the colour orange would look like, he supposed he'd just have to find his soulmate to know.

“Ahem.” Coughed Pidge, getting both men to pay attention to them as they waited with their arms crossed for the two to finish.

“Right, of course! What will you be ordering? We have a full range of pumpkin spice lattes, a new caramel frappuccino and even a limited edition gingerbread and coconut milkshake, perfect for the holiday season!” Coran said the options with such excitement that he could easily convince you to buy half the menu by just reading them out… Unless you had practiced with his ways before, that is.

“Coffee, black” stated Pidge with an unamused look, until Coran patted their wild mop of hair- then they gave a small, adorable smile before putting back on their straight face and pushing through the room towards a tired looking Matt (complete with sunglasses), who was currently getting scolded by Allura.

“I'll have my usual, and how is a gingerbread and coconut milkshake 'perfect for the holiday season’? It's Halloween!” Asked Lance as Coran slid behind the counter and started preparing the pair’s drinks.

“My boy, the secret to a happy life is celebrating Christmas at 2 months in advance, though it should be more in my opinion. Why, when I find my soulmate we'll be wearing matching Christmas jumpers in August!” He laughed cheerily, grabbing a large mug out of the cupboard.

That was something great about Coran, he was just so happy. He smiled and laughed and looked to the future, raising the spirits of the sullen students that surrounded him daily. And it was hopeful, Coran was at least in his late forties, probably even older, but he was still sure that before he died he'd meet his soulmate. Lance, however, was already stressing about not meeting his soulmate yet and he was only 19, he'd find his unfocused gaze wandering down to the indiscernible dark blob in the middle of his left palm daily, his soulmate mark…. Or one of the at least…. 

“Lance! You came! I knew you would” smiled Allura, breaking Lance out of his trance with her clear English accent. It was at that moment that Lance realised that Coran had at some point put two steaming mugs in his hands, one with his usual sugary, syrupy, milky mixture of diabetes and coffee, topped with whipped cream, and the other a dark pool of bitter soot-water. Both had hand drawn smiley faces on stickers tacked to the side, though Pidge's face had glasses.

“Hey Princess! Why'd you call me to your castle?” He smirked proudly at the smile his words elicited from Allura, a woman who usually seemed so serious, that he could make laugh like a sugar crazy 4 year old any day of the week.

“I had to remind you of our plans to have a spa day on Saturday, I can't have you forgetting” she explained.

“No offense, Allura, but I think you're confusing me with your soulmate over there. If you need a way to tell us apart just look at the most handsome one one and think: 'that’s Lance’”. He smiled at her deadpan expression, noticing a glimmer of levity in her eyes. 

“Now, now Lance, Matt would not be pleased to hear that. And as your two’s boss it is my duty to make sure there is no arguing between employees in my Café” She was kidding of course, Lance and Matt would never argue and they usually didn't have very similar shifts anyway. But it was fun to play along.

“Is he really an employee if you don't pay him, Princess?” Lance smirked deviously.

“I'm paying him I just keep deducting all the coffee mugs and the cost of that sweater from his wages” she countered, turning to smile fondly at Matt before quickly looking back at Lance when her soulmate and his sibling started approaching them. “We'll talk more on Saturday”.

“Hey, Lance” greeted Matt, the two men weren't very close but their friendship was nice, and they had some great mutual friends so hanging out was never awkward.

“How’s my favourite Holt?” Laughed Lance, not even having to spare a look at Pidge before saying: “just kidding Pidgey, no one could ever outrank you as a Holt. Until Allura and Matt get married because at that point I'm sorry but I will have to side with the Princess”

“You think I'm changing my last name, Matt will be becoming Matthew King, right?”

He couldn't pay attention to whatever was said after that thanks to Pidge kicking his shin and Matt making lovey-dovey eyes at Allura, who was pretending not to pay attention but was actually blushing fondly.

“Anyway, are you sure you, Coran and Rolo will be okay with the Café on Saturday? It's meant to be my shift…” Lance started, worried that everyone else was getting forced into extra work just because he was besties with the boss. Though Allura was never someone to show favouritism.

“Seriously, it's fine. But you totally owe us” he tacked the last bit on the end with a laugh but Lance took him seriously, they were doing him a favour and deserved repayment.

“We should get going, before we left the dorms I'm pretty sure Lance asked Shay out on a date for Hunk, so we have gotta go find out what happened there. And Matt, how is it that I'm 16 and yet I can still hold my alcohol better than you?” Pidge said as they grabbed Lance's wrist and pulling him out of the door into the icy wind and dark street, knowing just how long Lance could gossip with Allura if he remained unchecked and rushing to leave before they ended up staying all night.

The last thing they heard from the Café was Matt loudly promising Allura he'd never allowed Pidge to have a single drop of alcohol in their entire lives.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We learn about Shiro and Keith's relationship

Friday 11th October, 11am

Keith sat in the studio, mind entirely focused on the paper on the worn desk in front of him and the sharpened pencil that sat in his hand as he as he swirled the stationary over his page. He was, like usual, attempting to draw Shiro's likeness instead of whatever more productive thing he had planned for this Friday morning in his surprisingly dull art class. Not that he had always thought of it as dull, when he'd first started attending Castle College he had lived for these classes, for one thing it gave him an excuse to get away from his annoying roommate. But now? Now he missed Shiro, his boyfriend was basically his muse at this point and he'd found himself unable to concentrate on drawing anything other than the two of them, or just Shiro alone. So now he'd sit in art class drawing his soulmate and he'd be reminded that they weren't together, which was even worse for his focus. Shiro always told him to be patient but that wasn't who Keith was, he was reckless and impulsive and liked taking action but didn't like talking to anyone other than Shiro, not that he'd know how, anyway.

With this in mind the art student paused his current sketch and flicked back through his (incredibly fat and messy, a good 500 pages long) notebook to 8 months previously, when his life was changed forever…

__

 

8 months earlier:

Keith shivered pathetically in the February wind, wishing he wasn't so prone to the cold or hypothermia or other useless shit like that whilst simultaneously cursing himself for forgetting any gloves other than his usual fingerless ones at his aunt's house. The only bright side he could think of was the others would think he was shaking from the cold, not nerves.

Why was he doing this again? This seemed so out of character for the young introvert that he was starting to question the possibility of having a concussion or some other form of head trauma, but no. He, Keith Kogane, had made the decision to try out for the college football team: the Altea Lions. Though as he stood on the edge of the pitch decked out in way more gear than was probably necessary (Keith could take a punch at this point, why not a muscly 6ft athlete?) half frozen in his place, he was wondering why?

Simple answer that he would probably tell his aunt was he wanted to get some fresh air, exercise and an excuse to get away from his roommate who was the single most annoying creature on the face of the Earth (he was also constantly high and talking with some guy called Rolo about defying the government). But honestly? He was getting lonely at college, he had no friends even remotely close to campus or anywhere in the world for that matter and being on the football team would at least give him the opportunity to talk to people. And charging into people full speed for something as inconsequential as a ball did make the art student’s heart flutter with excitement. Yay, violence! Especially when he knew he'd be good at the sport.

His nerves were coming from the anxious side of him that was currently screaming: 'SOCIAL INTERACTION! ALERT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!? WE NEED TO GO BACK TO OUR DARK ROOM AND PUT ON MUSIC AND DRAW FOR THE NEXT 8 HOURS’. Still, he already came all the way out to the pitch at 9am on a Saturday, so there was no way he was going to go back now. So he shifted his focus from the impending conversations he'd have to have and instead fiddled with his jersey that appeared to be red for him but was undoubtedly some other colour Keith wouldn't get to witness until he found his soulmate. Or soulmates in his case he supposed. But apparently the inability of some players not being able to distinguish colour was an actual problem when there were two teams playing, which was basically always, so their jerseys had letters on them to signify team. A large, bold 'A’ sat on Keith's outfit followed by a slightly smaller 'L’. Though had Keith been designing this uniform he would've used 'CC’ for Castle College instead of ‘AL’ for Altea Lions.

“Okay, guys! I'm Takashi Shirogane, the captain of this team, and you're all trying out to join me” called Takashi, snapping Keith out of his musings and making the 19 year old turn to the slightly older man. “First off, teamwork is vital so I will be telling you a little about myself before we get started. 1) You can just call me Shiro. 2) I'm 22 years old but I will be 23 by the end of the month. And 3) I major in psychology and medicine. Now that's out of the way get your gear on and meet me in the middle of the field”.

With those words Shiro left Keith and the other students vying for a spot on the team struggling to catch up with him, well Keith had no problem running as fast as Shiro but he didn't want to stand out. He had also just manifested a crush on his captain because apparently his little gay heart couldn't figure out a good time to stop fluttering around his chest. Ugh, he'd only known this man for 30 seconds, if he was this worked up already how would he react to seeing him shirtless in the locker room? It was at that moment Keith prayed to whatever gods he could think of that people mistook his blush for just being red cheeked from the cold.

“Well that was just pitiful” snarled a man with incredibly long, silky white hair and an expression of disgust. Had Keith not been totally enraptured with the beauty that is Takashi Shirogane he might have admitted that this new man was rather attractive.

“Come on, Lotor! That's no way to talk to the new guys, they were actually pretty fast and they're probably out of practice so cut them some slack, okay? Now just go talk to the cheerleaders or something” scolded Shiro disapprovingly as he gestured to where a group of 4 girls were laughing about something, before flashing everyone else there an apologetic smile. 

It might've just been wish fulfillment but Keith could have sworn Shiro's gaze landed on him for just a few extra seconds more than anyone else. Though that could have just been because Keith was the most nervous person there, which is probably why he signalled some brown haired guy in normal attire holding a clipboard to start checking everyone was there while Shiro made his way to Keith's lone spot on the field.

“Are you okay?” His voice was kind and his expression genuinely worried. Keith had previously thought love at first sight was a myth but he was currently questioning that opinion greatly.

“Ugh… I…” He managed to stutter out in response, desperately trying to hide his pretty obvious blushing to no avail.

“That nervous, huh? I don't think you need to be, when we were running back there you barely broke a sweat. In fact I think you were holding off showing us your full potential.” Damnit of course this guy knew that, he was a fucking psychology major.

“Not nervous about the tryouts…” Keith managed to say, he didn't usually tell strangers personal things, or anyone for that matter, but he felt like he could trust Shiro with anything for some reason. “I'm just not very good with… People.”

“It’s okay, maybe being part of a team will help you with that?” Shiro was being so nice that Keith was pretty sure this rosy colouring in his cheeks would never depart, he decided turning away would be the best way to hide just how far he'd fallen for Shiro.

Apparently not, as he ducked his head and started to walk away in no particular direction Shiro placed his left hand on Keith's left shoulder to stop him, right on top of his soulmate mark. What happened next was indescribable, bright bursts of colour shot behind Keith's eyelids and despite the freezing weather Keith felt incredibly warm and lightheaded. What the Hell was happening? He opened his eyes to see a totally different place, less red, but it still didn't seem… Right.

“Oh shit, you two are soulmates”

“I thought Shiro was into girls?”

“No, he's pan right?”

“You mean I could've been getting on that this entire time?!”

“Enough! We will be going back to the locker room. Lotor, you will be finishing tryouts, ugh… Give my- my soulmate a spot” Shiro, despite seeming just as confused and disoriented as Keith felt, took charge and started leading the pair back up to the locker room.

After a few steps Keith turned towards Lotor and said “I'm Keith Kogane by the way, cos you need to add me or whatever” and then sped up to catch up with Shiro.

__

 

Shiro had never thought his would be how he met his soulmate, which was undoubtedly who Keith was, and though he already felt incredibly close to the guy after just one short interaction he still didn't feel… Right.

“Shiro, I have to tell you something.” Announced Keith once they arrived at the locker rooms, they'd walked here in amazed silence but the younger man was right, they had to talk about this. Whatever this is.

Keith started taking of his left fingerless glove and Shiro admired his pale, slender fingers despite having no idea what his soulmate was doing. That is until he showed Shiro his palm, it seemed rather normal except from an unactivated soulmate mark in the center, but that wasn't all too rare for… Oh. Reality dawned on him like a ton of bricks.

“We're not soulmates?” There was a break in his voice he wished he could erase but at this moment Shiro was too preoccupied with this new knowledge to feel ashamed. “But, you're mine…”

To prove his point he took off his left glove, or his only glove since the other arm was a prosthetic, not that Keith seemed to pay that any attention, and looked down at his pale palm. Where there had once been an unactivated soulmate mark, just an unidentifiable blob in his monotone vision (though now he could see actual colour, but there was still something missing) there were now… 2? One was still unactivated, just messy shape but the other was a sword in a colour he'd come to know as red.

“2?” He muttered… This wasn't right, he'd had 1 earlier.

“You have 2 too!?” Exclaimed Keith, grabbing Shiro's hand and studying it closely. What did he mean '2 too’?

“Wait, you have two soulmate marks? So we're soulmates we both just also have another soulmate?” Shiro was brimming with questions, he figured both of his soulmates, Keith and mystery person, must both touch his left palm so it had previously looked like the 2 marks were just one larger than average mark. Which was confusing to say the least.

“...Yes…”

__

 

Present day:

Looking back on it now Keith could remember seeing the exact moment when Shiro's heart broke, thinking his soulmate wasn't actually his. Keith regretted his art skills then because that look of absolute sadness was much too realistic to be sat in his sketch journal (which is what his notebook was by the way, a collection of drawings from everyday of college, he had another from highschool. Shiro had suggested calling it a drawing diary but Keith stood by his name of sketch journal, it was slightly more macho).

“And that concludes our class, goodbye everybody!” Waved Professor Thace, his voice shocking Keith out of his stupor and making him face the harsh reality that in the last 2 hours he had done nothing even remotely productive. 

He figured he had a lot catching up to do when he got back to his and Shiro's dorm, at least he was no longer bunking with that annoying Slav guy, Shiro especially hated him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well now you know how they met, and that they both have two soulmates each.... You can probably figure out who their other soulmate is.
> 
> Hits= great  
> Kudos= awesome  
> Comments= SPECTACULAR I DON'T DESERVE YOU BUT I WANT YOU!!!!
> 
> *cough*
> 
> Next chapter should be out soon, did a double update today and that's rare.


	3. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Allura go to the spa.

Saturday 12th October, 4pm:

Resting his now beautifully manicured nails into the clear solution that sat upon the table next to him, Lance gave out a sigh of blissful content.

“I told you a spa day would be good for us, we needed some relaxation” said Allura from her chair next to Lance's, she had a face mask on and her incredibly long hair was tied back into a messy ponytail.

“I seem to remember it as me spending 4 weeks convincing you to come and then you turning into an excited puppy the second I got tickets” he replied, happy to hear Allura's harumph of annoyance. 

They spent the next few minutes in comfortable silence, relaxing in their reclining chairs and admiring their nails because damn did this place do a good job with nails.

“Okay, I'm bored of this small talk, let's get to the juicy stuff; the gossip” pried Allura curiously, leaning out of her seat and towards Lance, a glimmer of excitement in her large eyes.

“I don't know what you're talking about…” he tried, already knowing his will would break in the next few seconds but wanting to make Allura hold out just a tad longer, he had to take every chance he had to make his boss miserable after all.

“Please? I know you're keeping a secret. Are you dating someone? Is it Plaxum? It's not Nyma again is it? Cos you would've thought she'd stop getting back together with you after you slept with her brother… by the way we should probably talk about that, I know we're besties and everything but I am still your and Rolo's boss so any misconduct in the workplace-”

“FINE! Fine, I'll tell you just never, ever talk about that again!” Lance interrupted, mentally cursing himself when he sees Allura's look of devious satisfaction.

“I may or may not like two guys on the football team who are already dating each other, they're soulmates and everything…” he admitted sadly, ready for whatever advice or teasing Allura threw his way.

“But…. I thought you hated football?” She questioned, the look of confusion spread across her face was recognisable even when she was wearing a think face mask.

“Out of everything I just said, that's the part you focus on? Football?!?” 

“Well yes, how did you come to know of these men when you never go to football games or even talk to people who do?” She explained patiently, but she was obviously pining for more details of her friend’s rather embarrassing crushes.

“Well they come to the café to talk to Matt, one of them is his best friend I think- Shiro. And Shiro's soulmate is Keith, who is also incredibly hot, but I don't have a chance with either of them” The Cuban man sighed defeatedly, he barely even knew these guys but he had managed to manifest feelings for them.

“Hey, it's okay” breathed Allura kindly, patting Lance's arm with a gentle smile. “On the bright side, you're right about Matt and Shiro being best friends so at our wedding you'll have plenty of time to flirt with him. Plus he'll probably bring Keith so you'll get time with both of them”.

“Yeah, cos the 'meeting at a friend's wedding’ trope is totally cliché, I should know; I'm a drama major.” He joked sarcastically.

“Come on! It would be sweet, the best man and his boyfriend getting together with the man of honour…” she hinted, smiling brightly now and shaking Lance's arm to get his attention.

“Wai- What?!? I'm your man of honour? Oh shit I've got to start planning… You'll want junoberries at the reception, obviously, and you'll probably have a white, pink and blue colour scheme- not that I'll be able to tell. Have you got something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue yet? Because I don't know when you plan to get married but we should probably start on that now. And with the bridesmaids- wait, when did you a Matt decide to get married?!? Is this your way of telling me he proposed? Oh, who am I kidding you would be the one to propose” Lance rambled, his spirits sufficiently lifted and downright ecstatic to be Allura's man of honour.

“We haven't really decided to get married, it's just something we both know will be happening. We are soulmates after all. But it's not just that, I love him, Lance, I really do.” She sounded tearfully happy so Lance leaned over and wrapped his arm around her, squeezing her shoulder to get her to look at him.

“Matt is lucky to have Princess such as yourself for a soulmate, you two are going to be very happy together” at his words Allura smiled radiantly and gave him a small shove for being too sappy.

“Thanks, Lance” she said after regaining some of her calm, at this point the pair were both squeezed into Allura's chair and had their arms wrapped around each other happily.

“No problem, Princess. But I do have one eensy little request regarding your wedding…”

“And that is?”

“I want to be the one to tell the story of how you and Matt met.” said Lance, preparing his best puppy eyes in an attempt to convince Allura he should get to tell it, not her.

“Okay then, but you'll have to make your toast before Shiro because I'm pretty sure he's dead set on embarrassing Matt” she laughed whilst Lance mentally started preparing his plan to beat Shiro to the punch.

__

 

When leaving the building Lance berated himself for wearing only a thin hoodie and a crop top on a windy Autumn day, despite how amazing he looked the frequency of his shivers negated his handsome factor. Instead of complaining, however, he just walked quietly alongside Allura towards the train station, then got on the train back to Altea (the small town in which Castle College and Voltron Coffee were located) and then walked from Altea station to the Café, his mouth clamped shut the entire way in the hope that Allura wouldn't notice his teeth chattering. No such luck.

“Coran, get Lance his usual and turn up the heating in here, I was pretty sure he was going to contract hypothermia on the way over here and I don't want his last words to be the shitty pick up line he used on the receptionist at the spa.” Allura stated, pushing Lance towards the seat nearest to the radiator and practically snarling at the people who were already there to move.

“No- not- tttt shi-shitt-shitty” he tried through his shivers, though those were dying down in the warm café with a latte in his grip. Why the hell was this state so cold?!?

“You asked if she was the sun because she was the hottest thing you'd ever seen” Allura deadpanned whilst Coran chuckled.

“Firstly, of course it's gonna sound shitty if you say it in that tone, and secondly, it was good, I got her to blush!” He argued, happy to see that his teeth were no longer chattering.

“She was red from anger, Lance” 

“Sorry Princess, but you have no proof” he concluded, before taking a satisfying sip from his latte and letting Allura go to check on Matt.

“Hey Coran, you sure you guys were okay without Allura and me?” Lance asked seriously, not wanting to have left Rolo, Matt and Coran with too much work.

“We were fine, my dear boy! This place can function easily on three employees, sure you missed one shift but you only work part-time anyway, plus you deserved a break. Not to mention Allura.” The older man assured him happily before giving him a pat on the head. “By the way, Hunk and Pidge stopped by telling me to tell you, if I saw you that is, to get back to the dorms quickly because Hunk has 'no fudging clue what the fudge to wear for his fudging date you fudging moron so get the fudge over and help us the fudge out’ or something slightly more vulgar to that effect.” Said Coran, carefully placing 'fudge’ in the place of fuck, not that Lance cared about swearing.

“I'm guessing Pidge said that?”

“Yes”

Lance finished off his delicious latte and pondered whether or not his friends realised Hunk’s date wasn't until Tuesday, before realising of course Hunk would be nervous enough to plan his outfit 4 days in advance, Lance would have probably started planning what he was going to wear a week early if it was him. This train of thought led him to imagining what he'd wear if he was going to go on a date with Shiro and Keith…

Probably his high waisted jeans that made his but look fabulous with his grey crop top trimmed with blue (well it mostly grey according to the label, Lance couldn't tell grey from any other colour but Allura assured him it made for a pleasing combination with his jeans). And possibly a thin jacket in case it was chilly. Of course the jacket wouldn't be that helpful in the biting cold but at least he'd look prepared and would hide the goosebumps. Shoes were harder to decide, he could wear his converse but was that too casual? Well the jeans were also pretty casual, perhaps he should rethink his entire outfit….

Lance was interrupted from his incredibly productive day dream by Pidge bursting through the door of the Café and stalking over to him before grabbing him by the scruff of his neck. For such a small person they had a surprisingly strong grip.

“You. Left. Me. With. Nervous. Hunk.” They spat, downright terrifying Lance and causing a few other customers to quietly shuffle away nervously.

“Ugh, I-” he never finished that sentence because Pidge dragged him out of his chair, past Allura and Matt's laughing faces, and out towards campus, never once letting go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back at it with an update! I'll be updating every Saturday from now on because writing 3 chapters in the last three days has been slightly tiring...
> 
> Also! OH MY ABSOLUTE GOD THE COMMENTS WERE SO NICE AND SUPPORTIVE AND ENOURAGING I HAVE BEEN BLESSED :')
> 
> (More kudos and comments would be greatly appreciated)
> 
> Just so you know I am not American (I'm English) so there will probably be mistakes about American culture, like how American colleges work and what state this fanfiction is based in.... xD
> 
> Hope you're enjoying this :))!!!


	4. 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk and Shay go on a date

Tuesday, 15th October, 8pm:

Pidge had one very clear rule when it came to their life: no romance. No lovey-dovey relationships for them, they were void of a soulmate mark after all and openly identifying as an aromantic asexual. They simply didn't care about love. This was actually incredibly lucky because had they been attracted to people then the lack of a soulmate would have been devastating, downright heartbreaking. But it wasn't. Now this didn't mean Pidge didn't get involved in relationships at all, they were perfectly happy to meddle in everyone else’s love lives- which is exactly what they were doing now whilst they and Lance prepared Hunk for his momentous date with Shay.

Shay and Pidge were actually surprisingly good friends, she was a geology major and Pidge did computer science so they didn't seem particularly similar. But they had one common aspect of their personalities which made their unlikely friendship more plausible- activism. Pidge, despite being only 16 (they had been accepted into college early thanks to their intelligence) was a hacktivist, they did *slightly* illegal things that actually benefited everyone except whichever scumbag they exposed or stole from. Shay never did anything illegal, she was too pure a human being, but she rebelled against the system in her own, more peaceful way. She attended peaceful protests, wore 'save the trees’ badges and donated to charities regularly. Shay also, despite not seeming the type, had a four leafed clover tattooed onto her right shoulder which many people mistook for an activated soulmate mark. Shay knew about Pidge's methods but didn't stop them and had even joined an activism group in their college led by Pidge and Rolo.

All this really meant was Pidge knew Shay liked Hunk and Hunk liked Shay and getting them together and revealing that they are soulmates was their current ultimate challenge. With some help from Lance.

“What if she thinks I'm trying too hard? Or not trying hard enough! I'm not prepared, should I cancel? Or will that make her think I'm not interested? Is she even interested?!?” Rambled Hunk as he got dressed up for his date, Lance was passing him his clothes whilst Pidge covered their innocent (according to Lance) eyes with their small, pale hand. These eyes weren't so innocent let's just say that.

“Hunk, it's a coffee date not a proposal, just wear your usual clothes, brush your hair and you'll be fine.” Lance assured him, Pidge wasn't very good at comforting people, but Lance usually knew exactly what to say to calm people down.

“You really think so?” The larger male asked weakly, before signalling to Pidge that they were free to look. 

He really did look fine, he was wearing his normal outfit of baggy brown pants (another plus of not having a soulmate= being able to see in colour your entire life), a yellow t-shirt and a green sleeveless jacket- thing; Pidge wasn't too good at naming articles for clothing since all they ever wore were the same shorts and green top everyday. Hunk looked like he usually did only he was also freshly shaven, his hair was combed and it looked like Lance had given him some contour, not that you'd have noticed the skillful addition of makeup if you didn't see Hunk literally everyday.

“Yeah, buddy, I do” Lance complemented with a smile before turning to Pidge. “What do you think, Pidgey?” 

“You look great Hunk, all that will ruin it is if you get there ten minutes late so let's get going” They replied, leading the way out of the dorm with a jittery Hunk and excited Lance following close behind.

__

 

“Your finest table, Coran!” Sang Lance as he walked into the café behind Pidge, dragging Hunk with him.

“Special occasion eh? I remember my first date, it was 20 years ago with a lovely man called…” started Coran as he cleared the window seat and Lance practically shoved his best friend there.

“That's great, Coran. Would you mind grabbing Hunk two regular cups of coffee and a box of donuts?” Lance asked merrily, not at all bothered by Coran's tangent. “Oh, and could I get my usual and Pidge get their’s? Thank you so much!”

After Hunk had been set up at his table Lance and Pidge made their way to one nearby with a good view of where Hunk was sat but in a position where Shay wouldn't be able to tell they were there. Well she wouldn't as long as Lance slouched down.

“Did you know slouching permanently damages the spine?” He asked after a few minutes of waiting.

“It shouldn't if you're only slouching for an hour, not constantly or frequently. Now stop complaining and shut up! We don't want them to hear us.” Pidge replied snappily, causing Lance to pout and look back to where Hunk was sat, alone.

“Shay isn't here yet! Do you think she's standing him up? She always seemed so nice too!” Said Lance worriedly looking from the door to his best friend and back again.

“I'm sure she's just late, we should just be patient, okay?”

“Have you told Hunk that because he's on his fourth donut” Lance replied truthfully with a gesture towards Hunk who really was scoffing himself on donuts (probably stress eating) and had managed to get icing and jam all over his lips and cheeks, completely covering his soulmate mark.

At that moment the coffee shop door burst open and in ran a frazzled looking Shay, her black hair a mess and her outfit askew and muddy as she scanned the room for Hunk. Upon finding him she carefully made her way towards him, ducking when the ceiling dipped too low as she was incredibly tall. Like taller than Hunk even. She was also well defined with muscle from growing up on a farm her entire life. Basically she looked like she could kill you with her pinky but was actually the gentlest creature to ever bless planet Earth. 

When Shay sat down Lance and Pidge leaned towards where they sat to hear their undoubtedly interesting conversation. Also, since Shay and Hunk knew where each other’s soulmate marks were they could do the practice where they intentionally touch their marks instead of waiting for it to happen naturally, if they were soulmates then yay! They can begin planning their lives together. If they touch marks and nothing happens then they aren't soulmates and will probably just be friends or maybe they will have sex for fun like Lance and Rolo did that one time…... Maybe it was more than once…. Though doesn't sound like Hunk and Shay at all.

“I'm so sorry I'm late! Classes ran late and then as I was rushing over here I saw a stray cat stuck in a tree so I had to climb up and get it and then there was this little girl outside my apartment selling cookies and I just couldn't resist!” She basically cried in a rush of words whilst Hunk tried to follow with a smile at not getting stood up.

“Hey, it's okay. All that matters is You're here now” he smiled calmly from his side of the table, still covered in icing.

“Hey, er, you have a little something” Shay chuckled, gesturing to her own cheeks whilst Hunk tried unsuccessfully to wipe the mess off of his face. Shay laughed again, but it wasn't cruel like others might of laughed, it was kind and cheerful, as if Hunk was the sweetest thing she's ever witnessed.

Without either of the lovebirds even thinking about it Shay reached across the table to brush the icing off of Hunk’s cheek with her thumb. As soon as she made contact it was like the two were frozen, then a small glow from their marks erupted and transformed into shapes. Had you not been focusing on the two you would have probably not even noticed the small glow, what you would have noticed was the cheers of excitement coming from Lance and Pidge as they literally leapt across their table to where Hunk and Shay were sat, before pulling them both into a crushing hug despite how small they were compared to the two.

“Oh my god your soulmates!”

“I knew it!”

“It was so obvious!”

“Look at their marks, Lance!”

“Hunk, you have a flower on your cheek!”

“Shay, you have a heart on your thumb!”

“You two are so cute together!”

“I bagsy the right to officiate their wedding!”

“Pidge, your 16”

“And?”

“I call best man!”

“Guys, guys calm down” Hunk said, breaking his stunned silence and smiling at his friends. “Maybe we should meet up later?”

“Right” Pidge laughed awkwardly before pulling Lance away, despite his yelp of annoyance.

“Pidge! I wanted to see what happens next!” Lance complained after they left the Café.

“Duh, so do I! You really think I left the dorm without bugging Hunk?” They replied casually, pulled out a small device that was feeding them Hunk and Shay's quiet conversation 

“Pidge, have I ever told you you're a genius?” The Cuban man asked seriously.

“Not enough, Lance, not enough.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear we get to see Shiro next chapter, just wait!
> 
> Also last chapter had a great response and I just wanna say that I am blessed *.*
> 
> Comments and kudos are always appreciated, see you next week!


	5. 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro and Matt hang out and talk about their individual soulmates.

**Friday, 18th October, 5am** :

 

“So then she wiped icing off of his cheek and their soulmate marks were activated! It was so sweet, literally” laughed Matt from his lounging position on the bile green sofa, a can of root beer in his hand and his glasses on the coffee table in front of them.

 

“Wow, that is an adorable soulmate story. Not quite as good as yours though, Matt” replied Shiro happily, also gulping down root beer and leaning back in a sickly green armchair, though he didn't look quite as comfortable as Matt- though it was Matt's apartment so it made sense.

 

“Could you stop bringing that up!?” He yelped unhappily, flushing bright red and glaring at the much taller, more muscled man.

 

“Not until the day I die. Speaking of your soulmate, is Allura paying you wages yet? You are literally there constantly and I'm pretty sure she's never given you a single dime.” questioned the 23 year old, smirking slightly at Matt's once more flustered expression before plastering back on a serious face.

 

“She- I… We-. Ugh, I may not have asked her for payment yet, technically she never hired me so what I'm doing is volunteer work…..”

 

Then Shiro really did break down into a fit of laughter then, letting his friend punch him angrily as he continued to chuckle.

 

“Ugh if only you didn't have so much muscle maybe you'd actually be able to feel my hits!” Panted Matt, retreating back to his slouch on the threadbare couch after failing to injure his best friend.

 

“It's called exercise, Matt. Us responsible adults try it sometime.” Said Shiro, still revelling at Matt's mock anger.

 

“Oh yeah? If you're so responsible then why are you drinking root beer at 1am in the Ultimate Party Animal's apartment, 7 hours before your 8am class, hmm?” Snipped Matt, making a good point Shiro was choosing to ignore in favour of keeping his responsible facade that he dropped whenever he was with Matt.

 

“I'd say I am a good adult since I'd never be doing this if your younger sibling was still in your apartment, but they're over at their friend’s dorm, right? Plus I may have a psychology  class in 7 hours but you have a shift at 5am. And since when does anyone call you the 'Ultimate Party Animal’?” Shiro countered.

 

“Fine, you win. But why didn't you invite Keith to come over with you? Isn't he free until 9am?”

 

“Yeah, but he's currently stress painting from our entire 'extra soulmate’ situation.” Explained Shiro, dropping into silence for a second as he too mulled over their problem.

 

“Sounds upsetting. Where are you with that by the way?” Asked Matt, now speaking seriously since his friend's feelings were in play. 

 

He could remember how confused Shiro had been in the few weeks immediately following finding out that Keith was his soulmate and that he had another soulmate other than Keith. This was all information Shiro had neglected to tell Matt for weeks, except that Keith was his soulmate because he'd been there when the two had met.

 

“Well, we hope that our extra soulmate is the same person instead of us each having different soulmates, if you know what I mean? And even though I'm pan and open to dating anyone, Keith is full on gay so our soulmate has to be a guy who's also attracted to men. None of the guys who we know like that ended up being our soulmate, so we moved on to seeing if there were any guys both Keith and I were mutually attracted to who also had two soulmate marks.” Said Shiro tiredly, rubbing his temples and taking yet another sip of root beer.

 

“From your lackluster expression I suppose that plan didn't go so well?” replied Matt, moving towards Shiro to give his friend what he hoped was a comforting shoulder pat.

 

“No, no it did not. The only guy both me and Keith like is Lance McClain, he works at your coffee shop (I don't know how many soulmate marks he has, he has an unactivated one on his left palm, I think?), but he's clearly straight- he only works part time but whenever I see him there he's flirting with some woman or another.” Shiro basically whined, clearly upset by his predicament but Matt couldn't manage to suppress his laugh at what he heard.

 

“Dude!” He breathed in-between what could basically be classed as giggles, inciting rage and curiosity from the college student across from him.

 

“What?!”

 

“Lance is not straight, I'm tempted to say he's even more bi than I am! First time I walked into the café he started flirting with me immediately, and basically all the gossip over there is about his and Rolo's casual 'friends with benefits’ relationship a while back!” Explained Matt, wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes.

 

“So…. He likes men?”

 

“Yup.”

 

__

  
  


At around half two in the morning Shiro passed out and Matt decided to just stay up until his shift and sleep afterwards; he didn't have any classes that day anyway. He also did the kind thing and set Shiro's alarm on his phone for 6:30am, giving the other man plenty of time to get ready for class and travel from Matt's apartment back to campus (it was only a 5 minute walk). Afterwards Matt cleaned up the discarded cans from around his already messy living room and poured himself some instant coffee- he was sure to be tired by the end of his shift...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter! But this is build up, I might do a double update this weekend so I can post the proper Shklance content next weekend!
> 
> EVERYONE IS SO AMAZING FOR THE RESPONSE YOU'VE GIVEN ME, I FEEL SO APPRECIATED AND BLESSED- PLEASE CARRY ON!!!!
> 
> I've also managed to play myself since there's no way I can do a Christmas special when this fic is currently set in October :'( I may just have to use intense fluff as my Christmas gift to you all!
> 
> Also! You can come scream at me on Tumblr @AbbyStaffyIsGeek, I post loads of Voltron, some svtfoe, spn, b99, arrowverse; I'm basically just spamming shitposts over there. Self promotion over!
> 
> So yeah, thank you so much for reading and I promise there will be a longer chapter coming up, though probably not the one tomorrow (if I get it done).


	6. 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance decides to get some work done.

**Friday, 18th October, 11am** :

 

Until that point Lance had been having a relatively normal day. He'd woken up early for his astrophysics class at 8, eaten a deliciously cooked breakfast from Hunk (who's even better than normal cooking was thanks to his good mood that came with his new relationship with Shay). And had gone to class. He'd left at 10, had a nice stroll before his shift at Voltron Coffee and then gone to the café. Which is where he is now.

 

“Matt, no offense, but you look like death died and went to Hell’s armpit’s dumpster.” Lance told the other man truthfully, surveying his exhausted demeanor and the large, tired bags under his eyes.

 

“Thanks.” Matt replied gruffly, turning around at the counter to pour what looked to be at least his sixth cup of coffee- but knowing Coran and Allura they switched him to decaf after cup 3.

 

Really Lance was more worried about the lack of response, no joking reply, no happy laugh, not even an eye roll or a small pout. All Matt did was blink slowly and sip his coffee. Plus the guy looked like he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep which was also pretty worrying.

 

“Why don't I take over your shifts for today and tomorrow? You're already off on Sunday and I think it would be good for you to have a few days off since you look so…. *Cough* Anyway, what do you say?” Offered the Cuban man, his tone as upbeat as possible when he was being faced with so much work.

 

“What?! No way, dude. You'd have to do double what you're down for, and I'm only tired cos I was an idiot who stayed up all night.” Tried Matt, which might've worked better had he not interrupted himself 3 times with yawns.

 

“I’m going to help you out, you and Rolo covered my shifts last weekend so the least I can do is return the favour. Just go back to your apartment and get some rest, okay?” Lance managed to convince Matt (probably since Matt looked ready to pass out) and the tired man passed Lance his blue apron from behind the counter and stumbled towards the door.

 

As Matt got ready to go home for the weekend, Allura offered to walk him back to his apartment so he wouldn't collapse on the street as he went over there. Lance knew now he'd be working a lot, he also had some revision he should be doing too, but he owed Matt for last weekend and honestly he could do with the extra cash Allura would give him for working extra hours.

  
  


**Friday, 12pm** :

  
  


Allura still wasn't back from walking Matt home- she was probably either doting over him (she might pretend not to care but she was actually super worrying and protective) or her own exhaustion from overworking herself had finally caught up with her. Meanwhile Lance was forced to do all the customer service whilst Coran was in the back cooking and preparing drinks.

 

“Coffee, black.” Called a loud but monotone voice sleepily as they walked through the doors of the Café, money for the coffee already in hand and his high tech prosthetic rubbing sleep from his beautiful eyes.

 

It was Takashi Shirogane, Lance could very vividly feel his heart ascend to the astral plane.

 

“S-sure.. Coming ri-right up, Sir” Lance cringed at the last part, averting his gaze from Shiro and trying to focus on preparing the football captain’s coffee. Who calls their crush 'Sir’!?!

 

Without once meeting Shiro's eyes Lance managed to prepare the dark sludge some people managed to call coffee and ask for the money. Despite how awkward and embarrassed he felt, Lance had still managed to draw his signature smiley face on Shiro's cup (he had wanted to put his phone number on the bottom too but: one, Shiro might not look at the bottom of his cup and two, it was an inappropriate thing to do to someone you know has a soulmate).

 

“Thanks, keep the change, Lance.” Said Shiro, possibly in a lighter tone than what he was using a minute ago, with a weak smile as he put $20 down on the counter. The older man then turned and left, not looking nearly as exhausted as Matt had been but still looking significantly tired.

 

Not only did Lance's stomach do a backflip at the extremely generous tip but also at Shiro's use of his name. His name. He knows his name. Though on second thought, Lance was wearing a nametag; he probably just read that. And yet there had been no pause before his name where Shiro had read his apron, and his gaze had never left his face so… Maybe he did know who Lance was? 

 

Not that it mattered, Shiro was dating Keith. Someone who Lance also wanted to date. And the only reason Shiro knew his name was probably through Matt anyway.

  
  


**Friday, 4pm** :

  
  


Allura still hadn't returned, meaning she had definitely passed out along with Matt which Lance was fine with- the pair deserved some rest and Allura's time off last week had been spent with Lance.

 

“Hey, Lance.” Called the cool voice of Rolo, he was in casual clothes and smelt fresh as a daisy. Lance made a mental note to ask where he managed to find deodorant strong enough to mask all the weed Rolo smoked. It was so good even Coran's bloodhound sense of smell hadn't managed to figure out that one of the employees was on drugs basically constantly outside of work.

 

Rolo's casual clothes consisted of denim and patchy jeans, and he was almost always sporting a small smile and an approachable demeanor- much unlike his sister. Maybe that's why Lance moved on from her to him… That had been a fun few weeks...

 

“Yo yo Rolo” chirped Lance from behind the counter, about to pass Rolo his lilac apron.

 

“Hey, would you mind covering my shifts this weekend? Or getting Matt to? There's this concert in Diabazol I'd really like to go to, plus there's a protest for animal welfare in the same town…” said Rolo, scratching the back of neck as he explained the situation to Lance, who was already deliberating over his response.

 

On one hand the extra money would be welcome, also he cared about animals and he did owe both Matt and Rolo. But on the other hand if he took over for Rolo that would mean he would be working for basically the entire weekend since the 3 of them's shifts covered the almost all of Voltron Coffee’s open hours (4am-12am the next day). So from today until midnight on Monday, he would only have 2 four hour periods off and he'd probably be too hopped up on coffee and the need to study to get any sleep whatsoever. So he made his decision.

 

“Sure, I can cover your shifts! Allura's out so I'll deal with the rota, okay? Have fun in Diabazol!” Lance smiled happily, shoving the apron back into the cupboard and waving as Rolo walked out with a cheery wave of his own. 

 

This would be fine.

  
  


**Sunday, 11pm** :

  
  


“I'm fine, Allura. I don't need to go back to my dorm” Lance lied impressively, easily waving off Allura's worries before walking into the break room to get yet another shot of espresso.

 

Unlike Matt, Lance was incredible at covering up just how little sleep he'd gotten. Every 5 hours he'd excuse himself to the bathroom for a few minutes to touch up the make-up that was plastered over the dark circles that were currently sitting underneath his eyes. He had, as predicted, gotten almost no rest in the last 2 days and Allura was starting to notice just how often he was at work. She'd probably missed it until now since throughout the last couple of days she'd been frequently leaving work to 'check up’ on Matt, who insisted he'd been fine after a few hours of sleep. 

 

Not that any of that mattered, Lance was almost done for the weekend and would be able to go collapse into his dorm in the next hour. It would be an empty dorm as on Friday, after class, Hunk and Shay had gone for a romantic weekend in Diabazol- probably to go to the same concert and protest Rolo had. They wouldn't be back until Tuesday morning so Lance would have the place to himself and could lounge about there all he wanted; after his 7am class tomorrow of course.

 

Maybe he'd get some sleep before then? Nah, that was unlikely with the amount of caffeine he'd consumed in the last few days- unlike Matt, Lance could protect his drinks from those co-workers who would force him onto decaf.

 

Now he just had to make it until he had time to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THERE'S SHANCE INTERACTION (SORT OF) ARE YOU PROUD OF ME!?!?
> 
> Oh my God it's super late here in England (well, much later than I usually write anyway) but I wanted to finish this chapter so next weekend I can..... ;)
> 
> DOUBLE UPDATE because I like making my readers happy!
> 
> Please comment, kudos, bookmark if you're enjoying this- your support brightens my life *.*
> 
> And fyi Keith will be *finally* back next chapter since I'm pretty sure he's been pretty background so far; he's only physically appeared in chapter 2 so.... My emo son needs some love. Actually all my sons do...


	7. 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro and Keith go on a walk.

**Monday, 21st October, 10am** :

 

“On the bright side, Professor Thace being off sick means we get to spend this lovely morning together” said Shiro, rubbing his boyfriend's shoulder as the other scribbled furiously into his journal.

 

“There is no bright side, Shiro! I needed to go to class this morning so I could figure out what the fuck to do about my shitty artwork!” Vented Keith, still drawing in his journal (well, scribbling) and shoving Shiro's hand off of his shoulder.

 

Last week Prof Thace had told Keith his art, though beautiful and well drawn, lacked individuality. 99% of artists out there used their soulmates as their muses, it was simply predictable. And sure, if Keith did something groundbreaking he might be noticed among the literal millions of other lovestruck aspiring young artists, but until then he had little hope.

 

“Look, even if your artwork is inspired the same way almost everyone else's is, they can't hold a candle to you. And besides, it's not like I'm the focus of everything you create” assured Shiro kindly, placing his left hand on Keith's own left hand (as the fiery artist differed from most of the population and was left handed) to stop his boyfriend from ripping through a page with how hard he was pushing down with his pencil.

 

Too late.

 

“Shiro, look at this” the smaller man opened his journal up to Shiro on the day they met and started flicking through “every drawing in here is of you. Every. Single. One.”

 

“Ah” Shiro began, not sure what to say but happily surprised by how handsome and muscled Keith had drawn him.

 

“This is you, you again, you and me, your face, oh it's you in your football jersey, you again. I can't seem to help it! Whilst you were at Matt's last week I tried to paint some fucking fruit, and guess what?!”

 

“Uhm… What?” replied Shiro hesitantly, not sure if he wanted his boyfriend to go into full rant mode so he could get his feelings off his chest or if he wanted him to just go take a nap. Truthfully it was the latter but Shiro knew better thanks to his classes in psychology. And thanks to knowing Keith.

 

“I inscribed the bowl with: ' _ to my dearest, Takashi. Your love is the fruit of my life _ ’! And one of the peaches had your nose!” Keith yelled, throwing his arms up in defeat and pushing his journal away from him to the far side of the table, not prepared at all for the joke Shiro was about to make.

 

“Well it's a good thing you're not an English major- that inscription was terrible and rather tacky.” Keith turned slowly to stare at Shiro, fire in his eyes and very close to strangling his well meaning boyfriend who was currently laughing quietly. “Look, Keith, I think you need a breather and some time to get your inspiration flowing. It's 10am so anyone who's not still in bed will be in class, let's go for a quiet walk on this lovely Autumn morning.” Shiro finished, taking Keith's hands and intertwining their fingers.

 

Damn, Keith was weak to that tone of Shiro's voice, he could almost feel himself leaning into kiss the older man. However, he stopped himself wanting to keep up his stubborn persona and feeling the need to rant a little more.

 

“com’n, please, babe?”

 

__

  
  


Keith had decided to join Shiro on his walk (or more melted into a puddle when Shiro called him babe, making it easy for the football captain to drag him outside with him) and the couple were now walking in a comfortable silence through the empty grounds near the physics building. Keith was leaning on Shiro, nuzzling into his shoulder whilst Shiro kept his flesh arm wrapped around Keith's waist. Keith had been about to try and start some form of conversation, though that was usually Shiro's job, when he saw a small figure swaying on his feet a short distance away.

 

“Hey, Shiro, does that look like-” began Keith, moving slightly away from his boyfriend to point at the figure who was reasonably close by now but had shown no signs of noticing the couple.

 

“Lance McClain? Yeah, it does” said Shiro, seeing Lance stumble and immediately rushing forward, inadvertently dragging Keith with him. They stopped a few feet away.

 

When Keith had first seen Lance working at Voltron Coffee he had felt a little flutter in his chest but had been way too shy to act on it and had already been dating Shiro at the time.

But he'd been enraptured by Lance's smiling face, his smooth-looking skin and what he assumed to be pretty eyes even though he couldn't yet tell what colour they were. After mutually deciding with Shiro that the smiling teen was straighter than a ruler Keith had made sure to ignore any emotional attraction he had for the other man, just letting himself think of Lance as that hot guy from the café. But now Lance looked about as hot as an iceberg, he still had his good looks but Keith doubted he'd seen even two hours of sleep in the last three days; his hair was a mess, there were large bags under his eyes and his legs were shaking just from keeping himself upright.

 

“...Hey-ugh! Uhm….” Lance said tiredly after finally managing to open his eyes enough to see who had come up to him, in his exhausted haze he stumbled back and would have fallen had Shiro not darted forward to place his hand on Lance's back in an attempt to steady the young man.

 

Keith would've described their faces as they made contact as two people who simultaneously got struck by lightning and had an epiphany. Shiro seemed both dazed and startled, and almost as if he were going to pass out too. Lance seemed more awake immediately, though still being devastatingly tired, and looked as though he'd just figured out an incredibly difficult algebra question. Keith didn't have the time to figure out what had got into the two of them when Shiro's limp hand (as he was too shocked to focus on keeping Lance on his two feet) fell away, forcing Keith to reach forward and grab the other man's hand.

 

It was like a burst of colour, where before he'd only been able to see in reds, plus black, white and grey thanks to meeting Shiro (and afterwards their colours mixed and they could see pinks, browns, oranges and yellows) he could suddenly see blues, purples, greens… It was breathtaking- better than he could have ever imagined. And thanks to Lance lean heavily into Keith, their faces mere inches apart, the first thing Keith saw were Lance's eyes. Where each fleck could've been an entire ocean, the rich blue swirled around Lance's pupils in discs of azure beauty. Keith could've described them for days, weeks even had Shiro not regained his senses and pulled Lance up, so he was no longer basically leant entirely on Keith's small frame.

 

“Uhm…” Shiro and Keith said simultaneously, staring at their extremely exhausted soulmate and trying to figure out what the hell to say.

 

“Look, *yawn* I get that we should probably talk or *yawn* whatever but I'm a little tired so can we have this conver-*yawn*-sation after I've gotten some coffee in me? I was headed there now since I was kicked out of class *yawn* for ‘looking like death and yawning much. *Yawn* I'm Lance by the way.” He said, sounding just as close to collapsing as he looked and pulling Keith and Shiro out of their bewildered trance and into their 'worried and protective soulmate, you are not going to die on our watch, how dare you put yourself at risk!?!’ mode.

 

“Wai-What?!? You're about 10 seconds away from collapsing into a heap on the cold ground! You think we're actually going to let you go all the way to the Café when I'm pretty sure you won't make it two steps without falling over?!? Even now Shiro is still supporting your weight! Plus to get all the way over there you have to cross roads, fucking roads! You will probably wander in front of a truck if you manage to walk down there at all!” Yelled Keith, stepping forward so Lance attempted to go back, except Shiro was gripping his waist and preventing him from moving anywhere. Not that that mattered since Lance didn't have enough energy left to move anyway, not that he was going to tell them that.

 

“I'm fine, see:” Lance gently pushed Shiro's arms away and took a cautious step, immediately feeling his legs go out from under him and falling for half a second before Shiro swept him up into his incredibly muscled arms (well, one arm and a prosthetic) and holding the Cuban man bridal style. “Maybe not…” Lance muttered, embarrassed and feeling himself drift off in Shiro's comfortable arms.

 

“We're taking you back to your dorm, okay?” Keith said, not really meaning it as a question but figuring Lance didn't have the energy to disagree.

 

“M’kay” was all Lance said as he fell asleep in Shiro's arms, nuzzling into the older man's comfortable chest. Usually if someone tried this with his boyfriend he'd slaughter them, but all he could really feel for Lance right now was concern about his safety…. Was Keith slowly becoming Shiro?!

 

They took Lance up to where the dorms were, only occasionally getting stopped by the very few other students who were hanging around to ask why Shiro was carrying around an unconscious person they'd never seen him nor Keith with. Whenever this was asked the couple sped away as soon as Shiro had made up some polite excuse and danced around the truth, not wanting the gossip that they had another soulmate (who was called Lance McClain) to spread around when they didn't know how Lance felt about the whole ordeal. Keith, however, would just glare at them silently to scare them away- so far his strategy seemed to be working. Upon getting to the dorms the pair realised something they should have thought of sooner.

 

“What room is he in?” Asked Keith and when Shiro said he didn't know Keith tried rootling through Lance's pockets for his keys. Unfortunately, it seemed in his exhausted state Lance had forgotten to grab his keys on his way out.

 

“Okay, Keith, here's the plan. We don't know which dorm he's in or who his roommate is so we take him back to our room, I'm not waking him up to ask him because I don't think he has the energy to wake up anyway, plus I don't want to interrupt his rest. You stay and watch him so he doesn't somehow wake up and find himself alone in a strange room probably feeling half drugged from lack of sleep. I'll go to the coffee shop and find out where his dorm is, who his roommate is etcetera and then I'll come back with them, okay?” Shiro said all of this as he made his way to their dorm on the third floor, Keith following closely behind and nodding along.

 

The two got into their room and Shiro placed Lance on Keith's dishevelled side of the bed, letting his boyfriend cover Lance with his side of the duvet.

 

“Okay, I'll see you soon” said Shiro as he left, he was in a hurry to find Lance's friends so he only stopped to give Keith a quick peck on the cheek. Not that Keith minded though, he smiled at the sweet gesture and went to work around the dorm, retrieving his journal from the far end of the table and deciding to sketch whilst he waited for Shiro.

 

So as he listened to Lance's calming deep breaths he set to work, using a bottle of paint he'd never so much as opened before.

 

A blue one.

 

__

  
  


Shiro arrived at Voltron Coffee to the smiling face of Matt, who waved at him cheerily before checking Allura wasn't looking and then sticking his middle finger up at his best friend with a devious smile on his face. Shiro took a second to take in the Café, he'd never seen it in full colour before and it was astounding- though that could just be because it was the first truly colourful place he'd been (aside from outside but even that had been a pretty grey day).

 

“Welcome to Voltron Coffee, how can we help you today?” Asked Matt when Shiro approached the counter. Since most people were still in class it wasn't very busy in the café, meaning Shiro was the only one stood at the counter.

 

“Do you know which dorm Lance is in?” Asked Shiro, ignoring the look of confusion Matt gave him that was quickly replaced by a quirky grin.

 

“I know you only just found out he's bi but don't you think it's a little soon for a house call? What would Keith say?” Matt joked happily, realising Shiro wasn't planning to buy anything and beginning to wash some mugs.

 

“”It's not like that Matt, Lance kinda…. Passed out in my arms and now I'm trying to figure out where to take him”.

 

“What?! What did you say about Lance!?!?” Called a young person from across the café who apparently had excellent hearing and looked like Matt's shorter twin. Probably his younger sibling, Pidge. They immediately stormed across the room and held a butter knife to Shiro's throat, apparently not daunted by his superior strength.

 

“He was really exhausted and is now unconscious in my bed. Not that we! Ugh, we didn't… I have a boyfriend already but…. Uhmmm….. Yeah…” stuttered Shiro pathetically, somehow feeling incredibly nervous from the murderous look in Pidge's eye.

 

“Fine. Allura! Come on, we need to go get Lance, apparently he's unconscious in Takashi Shirogane’s bed. Hunk's not in and I'm guessing if Shiro is here that means Lance forgot his keys so I'll have to pick the lock.” Yelled Pidge to Allura, who came out from the kitchens with a mostly worried look on her face but a curious twinkle in her eye. 

 

Allura was going to berate Lance long and hard for working himself to exhaustion -he should have gone home (she did tell him to) but she was also going to ask him about the events that led to him ending up in both of his crush’s dorm. Now that would be a fun story to hear.

 

“Yes let's go, come on, Shiro” ordered Allura, not hesitant about using Shiro's nickname as whenever he came in he had them write 'Shiro’ on the cup, not 'Takashi’.

 

They made their way quickly to Shiro's dorm, barely giving Shiro enough time to unlock the door before storming in. Allura immediately went over to the bed and scooped Lance's still unconscious form into her arms whilst Pidge went over to the table to write something down and Keith (who seemed incredibly surprised by the sudden intrusion) leapt up from his place at the table and basically growled at Allura.

 

“Keith, calm down. These are Lance's friends and they're taking him back to his dorm, okay?” Explained Shiro, not wanting Keith to make a bad impression on Lance's friends when they'd probably be spending a lot of time with them very soon.

 

“Yes, we'll be going now so Lance can get some rest in his own room” said Allura, Lance placed carefully in her arms whilst she matched out the door, not bothering to wait for Keith and Shiro's reactions or even Pidge as she left.

 

“Bye, oh and here you go.” Pidge smiled as they also left, placing a piece of paper in Shiro's hand before walking out the door.

 

The paper said:

 

_ To Shiro and Keith, _

_ You're Lance's soulmates- it wasn't too difficult to figure out. Here's his phone number: (403) 627-0410 and I already have yours, don't worry. His dorm number is 129, it's on the first floor. _

_ If you ever hurt my friend I will strangle each of you with the other's intestines to the point of almost death, then I will stab you both in the thigh and bury you alive on opposite sides of a graveyard. _

_ Best regards,  _

_ Pidge. _

 

_ P.s. just incase you survive being buried alive after 2 days I will blow up your caskets. I'm sure Hunk would help me with the mechanics. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, I'm back for my weekly upload! Are you proud of me? No double upload this weekend because I'm busy and working on co writing a Supernatural fic that's still in development, would any of you be interested in that? It's a Jack and Claire sibling fic set in Season 12.
> 
> Okay self promotion over.
> 
> Shklance!!! Finally, it took me long enough! Some of y'all said you liked that I didn't rush into them meeting and finding out that they're soulmates and I'm not sure if chapter 7 counts as rushing but I couldn't wait any longer.
> 
> Of course Shiro and Keith are protective boyfriends because I'm that self indulgent.
> 
> Pidge is not kidding btw, don't EVER hurt their friends.
> 
> Please leave kudos, comments etcetera- I live for your validation. But SERIOUSLY, I would love to see what you thought of this chapter, it's a bit longer than usual and is the beginning of the main plot so...
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> P.s. I had to go back and edit this because I realised I missed an apostrophe... Don't kill me! Please! :/ :))


	8. 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wow these boys are awkward

**Monday, 21st October, 9pm** :

 

Lance woke up in his own bed, covered in his blue sheets and surrounded by plump pillows, and for just a second he felt relaxed… Until, of course:

 

“What the fuck happened?!? How did I get here? Did that actually happen? Was I dreaming? Am I still dreaming!?!” He yelled, sitting upright in bed and with wide eyes, only stopping his ramblings when he took in the dorm room.

 

It was… Beautiful. Earlier he hadn't had enough energy to properly take in all of the new colours he had access to, but now that he did he was glad. Most of his own belongings were some shade of blue, a colour he still wasn't sick even after 19 years. Hunk had a lot of yellow, but also some light oranges and greens- not many though. Their ceiling was white and their college supplied lamp shades were grey as were their curtains- he would have to change them at some point. Pidge was also sat in his room, their outfit made up of green, white and tan. They also looked incredibly startled.

 

“God damnit, Lance! You've got warn me before you start shouting like that, now, I'm sure you have some questions” they said after regaining some composure and sliding their glasses up the bridge of their nose. Fun fact: Pidge didn't originally need glasses but when Matt got laser eye surgery they wore his old ones so much that they damaged their eyes to the point where a prescription was necessary for them to see properly.

 

“Well… I can see in colour so I must have met my soulmate… Soulmates I guess from… Oh God, did I really pass out in Shiro's arms?” He groaned pathetically, flopping back down on his bed and managing to hit his head on the headboard in the process. “Ugh, why am I so tall?”

 

“Yep, right in his arms. And then they carried you, or should I say Shiro carried you, to their dorm. Then Allura and I picked you up- she's super pissed at you by the way for overworking yourself, she's given you a week off to, and I quote, 'get some rest before I kill him’ so yeah.” Pidge replied, seemingly getting tired of the conversation and pulling out their phone.

 

“So… What now?” Lance asked, the prospect of two soulmates had been confusingly scary enough that he'd never allowed himself to think of it as a possibility. And now he suddenly had two soulmates that were dating each other.

 

“You call them, duh.” Pidge replied with a role of their eyes before gesturing to his phone.

 

“But I don't have their numbers.”

 

“Yes you do, I put them in your phone whilst you were asleep. They have your number to, they wouldn't stop texting for ages. Oh, and don't ask how I got your phone password- you probably already realised I had a way in.” Pidge said, still scrolling through their phone and waiting for Lance to retrieve his phone.

 

Lance turned on his phone and immediately on the lock screen there were 20 new messages from someone Pidge had listed as 'shorter soulmate’ blocking out his lovely picture of Beyoncé. He input his password (STAYOUTPIDGE0410) and started scrolling through them:

 

_ Hey, it's Keith _

 

_ You know… Ugh the footballer _

 

_ Dating Shiro? _

 

_ Yeah you probably know that _

 

_ Are you okay? _

 

_ Like you're obviously not okay since you looked like hell this morning but still _

 

_ Not saying you're not good looking, you obviously are _

 

_ Like really hot _

 

_ Well from those times I've seen you at Voltron Coffee anyway _

 

_ Not so much this morning… _

 

_ By hot I mean I think you're respectfully handsome _

 

_ Not just some pretty face _

 

_ But you do have a pretty face _

 

_ Really pretty _

 

_ Like Shiro is muscly and fucking smoking but you're really handsome and pretty _

 

_ But you're both… Ugh both? _

 

_ I'm not making any sense _

 

_ Shiro says I should stop texting you incase I wake you up. He says you need the rest or something _

 

_ So… Bye, I guess _

 

_ I don't guess, I just mean bye. So bye _

 

Okay, Keith was a tad more awkward then Lance had realised but kind of endearingly so. Lance tried to muster up the courage to call him or Shiro to meet up, however it was apparently a losing battle.

 

“It's already 9pm, I might as well just talk to them tomorrow” he reasoned, more to himself than to Pidge.

 

“What college student do you know that goes to bed at 9? They'll be up at least another 3 hours, minimum. You might as well get it over with and then you can sleep some more since 11 hours of sleep doesn't totally make up for 3 days straight of being awake” Pidge said, crossing over Lance's dorm to where he stood, looking up at him with their big, hazel eyes.

 

“But what if-”

 

“No buts, you've already dialed them anyway” Pidge said as they clicked on Shiro's contact and pressed the green call button.

 

“Wha- hey! Ugh…. Oh, hi S-Shiro” stuttered Lance, immensely surprised by how quickly the older man had picked up. “Yeah, I'm okay … wha-yeah we can meet up … su-sure, now's fine… cafeteria? See you there” 

 

Lance hung up quickly, his face burning red and his hands ready to strangle Pidge, only as soon as he turned to them he realised they were already on the other side of the room, flicking through one of Lance's traditional French books about the astounding love story between Marienette and Adrien. Could Pidge even read French?

 

“What am I supposed to do? I look like shit and I just agreed to meet up with the two guys I have crushes on- only now they're my actual soulmates!” He rambled, quickly pulling a brush through his hair, switching his shirt in the mirror and putting his favourite hoodie over it and plopping a mint in his mouth to counteract what was sure to be his current terrible breath.

 

“You look better than you did this morning, now just go meet up with them. Also, your WiFi in here is shit- I'm trying to translate 'chat noir’ into English but Google is taking way too long to connect” Pidge said, now staring angrily down at their phone.

 

Lance chose not to tell them it meant 'black cat’.

 

__

  
  


Lance walked into the cafeteria apprehensively, glad that they chose to meet up in the College and not at the Café- he wasn't sure he could deal with angry Allura right now.

 

“Hey…” he said nervously with a slight wave when he found Keith and Shiro's table, Shiro was sat looking at him with an encouraging and reassuring demeanor. Keith, however, was looking down at the table quietly, his dark hair covering his face almost completely. He could someone with a mullet look good?

 

“Hi, um, you can sit down, you know?” Shiro gestured to the third chair one of them had dragged up to the two person table. Lance sat down awkwardly.

 

“Hey…” he said again, unsure of what to do and blushing so hard he was pretty sure he'd combust at any second.

 

They sat in silence for a few moments, apparently needing some sort of prompt to start an actual conversation. Even Shiro's calm facade was beginning to break.

 

“So… we're your soulmates?” Shiro asked, he still sounded mostly normal but there was a hint of heavy curiosity intermingled in his tone.

 

Lance looked down at his left palm, where a red sword sat as though it had been there forever. At that point he realised Shiro was curious because his other soulmate mark was on his back, meaning Shiro couldn't be 100% sure that Lance had him as a soulmate. After all, unreciprocated soulmates did happen, no matter how rare they were. But whilst changing his shirt Lance had seen a black star on the small of his back instead of his old unactivated mark.

 

“Yeah… You're both my soulmates… Am I your’s or…?” He mumbled, afraid of the answer he was about to get.

 

Instead of responding verbally, since Shiro actually seemed rather flustered and… Relieved? And Keith seemed unable to communicate verbally no matter how many texts he sent, they both slid off their fingerless (how did Lance fall for emos?) gloves on their left hands and showed Lance their palms. On Shiro's hand there was a red sword, exactly the same as the one on Lance's hand, and also a blue teardrop. Keith, however, only had the blue teardrop so Lance assumed Shiro's mark was somewhere else.

 

“Look, I get that we're soulmates but I also know that you're both in a happy and loving relationship” Lance began, deciding to cut to the chase since otherwise they'd never get anywhere “so if you guys don't want to pursue a relationship with me then I understand. It's okay, I'd never expect you to just let me into your relationship just because some silly mark on your hand told you to.”.

 

As Lance got up to leave, since he figured that was all the two needed to have a clear conscience about rejecting him, Keith grabbed his wrist and pulled him back to his seat, still not looking at him. Shiro kindly placed his hand Lance's shoulder and looked at him so intensely in the eye that Cuban man was forced to turn away.

 

“Lance, we like you. A lot. We want to be your soulmates, we want to try to have a relationship with you. Not for one second did we even consider leaving you out.” Shiro reassured him so comfortingly Lance could feel his eyes well up, wow maybe the teardrop was an accurate representation of him. 

 

“Plus you have nice eyes” added Keith, speaking for the first time very quietly so Lance figured the shorter man hadn't expected him to hear.

 

Instead of saying anything Lance just nodded for fear he'd break down from the two of them being so unexpectedly kind and accepting. Though really he should have expected it from the couple who carried him back to their dorm he was so exhausted.

 

“Okay, good, where should we start?” Shiro said, recovering the conservation and giving Lance a second to blink away the moisture in his eyes.

 

“We could go on a date on Saturday” suggested Keith, speaking for the second time with a higher volume. Lance could barely concentrate on anything other than the fact that his crushes were planning to go on a date with him.

 

“Actually I've got that massive exam in my medicine class so I have to study all weekend. But maybe that's for the best, it might be less intimidating for Lance to get to know us one at a time, is that okay, Lance?” Said Shiro, smiling brightly and promoting Lance to return his sunny expression with a blush. Damn, with these two as his soulmates he'd be blushing for the rest of his life.

 

“Yeah, sounds good” Lance, now more confident, managed to abandon his stutter and turned to smile at Keith who he could see was looking at him through his ebony locks. As soon as Lance's smile caught his eye properly Keith blushed furiously and turned to look back at the table where he'd graffitied a very cute little sketch of a shark, a cat and a hippo.

 

“Um, yes… I’ll go take you on a date… so you can get to know me better … and stuff.” Keith stuttered eventually, looking up from the table long enough to offer a small smile before covering it up with what Lance assumed was his signature scowl.

 

As Lance left the table he began to ponder what he should wear on Saturday, he had less than a week to prepare after all and he figured it would be difficult to break through Keith's stony exterior.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter because I'm so responsible :))
> 
> Might not be posting a chapter next weekend (I might do please don't kill me!) because of Christmas and I want to write some fluffy Christmassy one shots. But I may update, depends how busy I am and how creative I'm feeling.
> 
> Head canon that Lance is multilingual with English and Spanish as his main two. He can also speak and read in French and can speak Italian and German. He's learning Chinese in his free time. Probably won't play a big part in this fic but I like it so I'm including it. :)) He learnt them because he likes to talk to people, no matter where they're from! He's such a social butterfly I love him *.*
> 
> You get Klance next chapter so look forward to that (I'm sorry Shiro you get a chapter with Lance soon!) They'll basically be doing stuff Keith likes so Lance can get to know him better.
> 
> Comments and kudos are all SO appreciated, I love your feedback.
> 
> Btw, Shiro and Keith are 100% terrified of Pidge and will be trying their very best to avoid them. Lance has no idea.
> 
> Also, did you catch that reference? I just finished watching ml so I'm in that void now as well as Voltron hell ;)


	9. 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance go on a date.

**Saturday, 26th October, 12pm:**

 

Keith stood at platform 9 with clammy palms and an expression of masked worry. And his worry truly was well masked, seeing as he was scowling and had a murderous tint in his violet eyes. Lance, according to his text, was running late (for some reason Keith found that unsurprising) and wouldn't get there for another 10 minutes, which gave Keith's anxiety 600 extra seconds to work itself up. Perfect. The young college student wasn't sure why he was so nervous, with Shiro it had been easy- though that was probably because their first few 'dates’ were full of theorising about their other soulmate, making pages of evidence for different potential boyfriends (okay, that was more Keith but Shiro only said it was a tad creepy once). And Keith loved theorising, he loved conspiracies so he could focus on that instead of the stupid stuff like: 'do I look good? Am I being annoying? Should we have gone out to a movie?’. By the time the couple actually got round to having a conventional date Keith knew Shiro well enough not to feel shy and awkward. With Lance, however, he didn't have that luxury.

 

“I'm so sorry I'm late! Allura took ages deciding what I should wear, even though I definitely told her not to bother and that no effort was needed, and then Pidge gave me the 'dad’ talk like they're my parent or whatever whilst I'm at college but I'm here now!” Lance rambled happily, not really meeting Keith's gaze until he finished talking and was stood directly facing him. “So… Where are we off to?”.

 

Keith pondered the question for a second, he'd kept it a secret until now but it wasn't exactly a jaw dropping surprise. Then again, from what Shiro had got out of Matt Lance actually liked surprises, unlike Keith who kept his birthday (that had happened 2 days ago) a secret from everyone, including Shiro, to avoid a surprise party. Or a party altogether really. Whilst thinking he managed to take in Lance's extremely attractive appearance, he didn't focus much on the outfit, though it's blue hues did match Lance's eyes, but more on his charming smile and beautiful skin. Truly a masterpiece if Keith had ever seen one, and he seemed to be wearing very subtle but effective makeup too. 

 

“Dinner and a movie, or lunch I guess. What do people call the mid day meal they eat?” Keith said, deciding to be vague, as he led Lance onto the correct train and found a seat for them. For a Saturday the vehicle seemed pretty deserted, only them and a few other college students on board, as well as two elderly ladies holdings hands at the back.

 

“Dinner and a movie, hmm? Went with the classic I see.” Lance smiled dazzlingly, seemingly brightening the world around him and definitely making Keith blush stupidly. “Didn't know you were so romantic, Keith.”

 

“I'm not. I googled it.” He replied bluntly, looking down at his lap to hide his face but glad Lance was trying to make a pretty casual conversation, unlike the awkwardness of their and Shiro's conversation on Monday.

 

“Well, at least you tried. Hey, how long is this train journey?” He asked, he was speaking in a kind tone but he had a teasing edge to his words, like he wanted to banter but didn't want to inadvertently hurt Keith's feelings.

 

“It's 30 minutes, and I don't see you trying. I had to come up with this entire date on my own. Shiro didn't even buy the train tickets!” Keith only realised he was whining more than he was bickering after he had spoken, but he paid no attention to that and instead looked into Lance's eyes in a challenge. He'd always been a little competitive (okay, a lot competitive) so this was a great way to get rid of some of the tension.

 

“What? The poor, little, starving artist Keith Kogane needs his big, bad boyfriend to pay for his stuff?” Lance teased, seeming less afraid of saying the wrong thing thanks to Keith's earlier response.

 

“You realise he's your boyfriend too, right? Or did you miss that whilst you were unconscious in his arms?” Keith bit back in retaliation to the comment on his height, slightly nervous to take it too far but Lance just squeaked both indignantly and dramatically as a reply and turned away from the shorter man, all the while sporting a smile on his face.

  
  


**1:00pm:**

  
  


The two of them sat down at a small but delicious smelling diner, Keith's favourite, after a 20 minute walk from the train station. A walk Lance seemed unable to stop complaining about, and though it was endearing and cute to begin with, now it was just annoying. Okay, maybe his pout was still a little cute.

 

“My legs! My muscles! I'm dying! You might as well leave me here, I'll never walk again!” Moaned Lance theatrically, going as far as making extravagant hand gestures and pretending to limp before outright collapsing into his seat, at least Keith hoped he was pretending to limp- the Cuban man was a good actor, probably from studying drama, and did a scarily convincing fake limp.

 

“Need Shiro to carry you again?” Keith quipped, successfully shutting Lance right up as he huffed in annoyance. “Anyway, we're here. Order whatever, I'm paying.”

 

The two actually had a nice dinner, it wasn't fancy or expensive but it was Keith's style, with nice waitresses and good food. Lance told him about himself, probably exaggerating at some points but still making the story seem genuine and entertaining. Keith told the much less alluring tale of his life, his mom moving from Korea to Texas, marrying his dad and having him. Keith mentioned his parents split up but didn't go into the entire depressing story; this was a date after all. They ate their exquisite meal, Lance holding them up 20 minutes since he was apparently a very slow eater, and making Keith worry they'd miss the movie.

 

“What movie is it anyway? Is it Star Wars? Jumanji? The Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief remake that's apparently way more accurate to the book with better acting and fewer plot holes then the first one? Oh my God, is it The Last Showman?! That one has Zac Effron and Zendaya!... Though you're obviously way hotter than either of them.” Lance guessed pointlessly as they left the diner, side stepping along the sidewalk as Keith strolled normally, his face bright with excitement.

 

“None of them, though I am looking forward to the Percy Jackson one, the books were incredible. But no, we're going to a Swedish documentary of Mothman sightings.” Keith revealed, certain Lance would be the opposite of happy with this movie choice, but not really caring since they were meant to be getting to know each other and this was something he liked.

 

“A Swedish documentary on Mothman?... Dude, that's not even a movie! I'll have to read subtitles!” Lance complained, his excitement melting away and starting to walk normally. Despite his decline in attitude he still chose to lace his long, tanned fingers through Keith's pale ones and squeeze his hand, as if to say: 'I don't like it, but I don't hate it. If you want to go watch some geekfest about a cryptid then why not, but I won't be singing from the rooftops about it. As long as you're happy, I'll go’. Though admittedly Keith could have been reading too much into the simple gesture.

 

The documentary meant being in a dark room, that was mostly deserted since, for a reason Keith couldn't even comprehend, almost everyone else in the world didn't give two fucks about Mothman, and that alone had made Keith super anxious to come here with Lance. He was a good guy but Keith knew he flirted around a lot, had had a lot of relationships and was probably expecting a long make out session in the back of the movie theatre. Whereas Keith had only ever dated Shiro, the guy was his first kiss and even that took a few weeks to get round to after they got together, and no offense to Lance but he wasn't exactly ready to start kissing him on the first date, as stupid as that sounds. Luckily for him, Lance was surprisingly considerate despite not knowing how Keith felt, during the entire movie all he did was hold the shy artist's hand and then fall asleep with his cheek rested on Keith's shoulder when they got to what Lance must have thought was the most boring part of the documentary (it wasn't boring at all). Could this guy seriously not stay conscious whenever Keith was involved? This was the second time!

  
  


**5:00pm:**

  
  


The two men got off of the train together, Lance still with his messy hair from his doze on Keith's shoulder and Keith with a small smile on his lips, glad Lance seemed to enjoy their date despite not liking the movie.

 

“I guess this is where we part ways, huh? I… Had a good time.” Lance smiled happily, squeezing Keith's hand and giving him a quick peck on the cheek, as if sensing Keith wasn't quite ready for anything more.

 

And with that Lance walked off, waving momentarily and leaving Keith with a pathetic mushy grin on his face, probably surprising the conductors who'd seen him scowling earlier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter, sorry I couldn't update last weekend :/
> 
> Also, this chapter seems a little off to me so I'm sorry. But there is Klance and I love me some Klance!
> 
> Comments and kudos are so appreciated! 
> 
> You are all amazing! *.* See you next week!!!


	10. 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro takes Lance on a dinner date.

**Tuesday, 29th October, 7pm:**

 

Shiro waited outside the restaurant patiently, Lance had mentioned he might be a little late so he wasn't too worried about being the first one there. And according to Keith, Lance had also been tardy to their date which made Shiro assume punctuality just wasn't one of Lance's traits. Keith had actually told Shiro a lot about his date with Lance, though much of it was drowned out by the stress the older man was experiencing from his ruthless studying, but one thing Shiro had paid attention to was the fact that Lance had been very respectful of Keith's boundaries. This was obviously great as it meant Keith wasn't too uncomfortable, and Shiro cared a lot about his boyfriend’s comfort, but Shiro also hoped that Lance would sense he had fewer boundaries than Keith had… 

 

“Okay, I'm late, sorry! But I have a good excuse!” said Lance as he rushed to the front entrance of Balmerra Dining, shivering in his much too thin jacket and rubbing his hands together to preserve some warmth. 

 

“Your freezing! I don't care about your excuse, I just care about your temperature- which is much too low. Let's go inside, okay?” Shiro was bumbling through his words as he tried to warm up the younger man, even forcing his coat onto Lance and wrapping his arm around him as they walked into the restaurant. 

 

“Yeah… It's just as well you don't want to hear my excuse since it's less of an excuse and more of a reason for me not to be late. When I told my roommate, Hunk, about the restaurant I'd be going to he reminded me it was my other friend, Shay’s, parents’ restaurant and offered to drive me on his way to meet Shay (he's spending the night with her, they're so cute together, seriously), then we talked about that coincidence for 20 minutes before he gave me a lift.” Explained Lance, apparently unfazed by how cold he had been minutes earlier and eagerly snuggling up to Shiro’s side. 

They made their way to a table, like the others in the restaurant it had a bowl of pretty crystals for the centerpiece (their bowl had blue, white and black crystals which seemed fitting despite Shiro’s being positively sick of monotones at this point) but their table was the most romantic seat in the place, a two person table right under the beautiful chandelier and close enough to the pianist to hear their quiet melody but far enough away so it wouldn't drown out their conversation. Shiro had to believe that, after realising his friend’s family owned Balmerra Dining, Lance had called in a favour to get them the best table. 

 

“So, I heard your date with Keith went well.” mentioned Shiro once the pair had sat down and ordered. It was Shiro’s treat and Lance had been surprisingly careful about the price of his roast salmon, not wanting Shiro to pay too much which was sweet but unnecessary; Shiro was the only child of a wealthy Japanese family and had plenty of money. 

 

“Yeah, he's cute and fun… Even if his choice of ‘movie’ was poor…” Lance said sincerely, getting a daydreamy look to his eye when talking about Keith, which transferred over to Shiro when he looked back up at him. The deep eye contact, however, only lasted a few seconds before Lance turned and… Blushed? “But you know, you're pretty fun too.”

 

“How could you know that? We've spent hardly any time together, and for most of that you were unconscious” teased Shiro lightheartedly, smiling at the deeper blush he managed to cause in Lance, the redness now at the tips of his ears. 

 

“I hope you realise it was much easier to get through a date with Keith then it is with you, you're very…” Lance tried to tease Shiro back but was apparently at a loss for words when he saw Shiro’s false innocent smile, which basically screamed ‘aww, did I make you blush? Sorry, I was just trying to be a sweet soulmate’. 

 

At that point their food arrived and Lance lost his chance at a witty response and seemingly decided that cute banter was not how he would be flirting with Shiro, though Shiro didn't doubt it had worked perfectly with Keith. They made idle chatter instead of overly flirtatious remarks and Shiro learned that Lance was from a Cuban family and was the youngest of 5 of his own siblings and had three older step brothers. His parents got divorced shortly after he was born and he spent most of his time with his mum (he avoided the topic of his biological father like the plague so Shiro decided not to ask). Lance also mentioned he took classes in both drama and astrophysics which seemed like a weird mix but worked for him. Shiro told Lance about his rich heritage, how his parents moved to America when he was only two but he still knew the languages of both of his homes (apparently Lance himself was multilingual which was extremely interesting). Shiro also said he had had classes in both psychology and medicine which didn't seem to surprise Lance in the slightest, perhaps he had already heard about it from Matt or maybe Shiro simply had that look about him? Once the pair had finished talking about themselves, and Shiro was out of his awestruck state from how bubbly and entertaining Lance was, they just started chatting about what was going on at the moment. 

 

“So yesterday, when I finally faced Allura, she, well first she tried to strangle me for working myself to exhaustion (as did Matt and Rolo, apparently they worry about me, who knew?) but after all that she told me her and Matt’s engagement was finally official! Well, it's going to be, she's proposing tonight, like 10 minutes ago. And she already has a venue for their engagement party, the Olkari’s place, do you know it? For the 9th of November; it's the first time it's available” said Lance, apparently unable to keep a secret but that didn't matter as when Shiro checked his phone it was flooded with engagement selfies from Matt, who was smiling and wearing a pink ring. 

 

“Well, now I get to tell the embarrassing story about how he met Allura” Shiro said, not expecting the offended gasp from Lance who dropped his fork for extra effect. 

 

“Nope, no way! I'm telling that story, I was actually there!” whined Lance endearingly with an adorable pout Shiro didn't think he meant to make. 

 

“We'll see.” That was code for ‘ha, no way, but you're cute enough that I'm not going to blatantly refuse’.

 

They finished the rest of their meal in comfortable silence except for Lance humming serenely in a very calming way. Upon finishing, which took Lance ages though Shiro didn't mind, Keith always wolfed down his food in two seconds flat and it was refreshing to have dinner with a slow eater, Lance dragged his loud and heavy chair across the polished wooden floorboards so he was sat right next to Shiro, their shoulders touching, instead of facing each other. 

 

“Did you get sick of my face?” Shiro joked, feeling very at ease around Lance despite not knowing him for very long. Or he supposed it was pretty long if you counted all the time Shiro was crushing on the young Cuban man, which he was reluctant to from embarrassment. 

 

“Nope, you're just really warm and I'm still a little chilly” Lied Lance easily, pulling Shiro’s flesh arm around his shoulders and basically cuddling up to the older man shamelessly, not that there was anything shameful about cuddling your soulmate. 

 

“You know, if you're still cold…” Shiro smirked and turned his chair so he was facing the younger man's side, unwrapping his arm from him in the process (which made Lance make a moody grumble about being cold) and then, as easily as someone might lift a bag of sugar, Shiro gripped Lance by the hips and lifted him onto his lap so he was facing Shiro and making a surprised gasp, and then blushing furiously. “I think maybe you need a little more body heat.”

 

With that said and done Shiro, who was still gripping Lance's hips, pulled him forwards so their torsos were touching and Lance, who was now straddling Shiro lap in the middle of a pretty nice and crowded restaurant, was at eye level with his soulmate and only an inch from his lips. Shiro could see Lance recovering from his initial shock at being lifted onto Shiro’s lap and saw a significant change from ‘bubbly, flirty coffee shop Lance’ to ‘mischievous, sexy ‘I've had more boyfriends and girlfriends then you can count’ Lance’. It was… Endearing to say the least. 

 

After a little more eye contact, that Shiro was pretty turned on by since it was the main feature of Destiel’s relationship in Supernatural and those two were hot as fuck, Lance finally wrapped his long, tanned arms behind Shiro’s neck and pulled him forward a little, so the two were kissing. For a moment it was innocent, no tongue or inappropriate touching… Then Shiro got bored and decided to make it interesting. Since Keith had never been particularly physical (which was fine with Shiro, he loved Keith no matter what) he'd never gotten to try out the spontaneous acts of physical affection he'd always wanted to, and this was his chance. He slyly liked his tongue across Lance's cherry tasting lips, probably from his soda, and ran his hand up Lance's spine, earning a rewarding shiver of approval. In response the other man, who was unsurprisingly experienced at this, bit Shiro’s bottom lip playfully, giving Shiro the chance to deepen the kiss into a full on making out session that Lance moaned very quietly into, as to not distract other diners from their food too much. Whilst kissing Shiro found that his hands had nothing to do, unlike Lance's that were messing with Shiro’s hair, so he moved them down Lance's frame until he was brushing against Lance's butt with his soulmate mark ridden hand, and then he squeezed unexpectedly, making Lance give out a much more audible gasp. 

 

“Erm, excuse me, sirs, a few, well most, of our other customers have sent in complaints about you being… Ugh, distracting…” Mumbled their waitress, somewhere between apologetic and embarrassed, but not at all commanding and Shiro would have happily ignored her had it not been for Lance. 

 

“We're so sorry for troubling you, you're Shay's sister, right? I work in the service industry too and I get how annoying customers can be, and we'd never what you to be put in bother because of this. Don't worry, we can go… Someplace else..?” Apologised Lance, still straddling Shiro’s lap but slowly getting up and reaching over the table for his and Shiro’s coats. At the last word he gave Shiro a questioning wink, which the older man didn't realise was possible. 

 

“Yes, we'll happily take this… Someplace else. Lance, didn't you say your roommate was spending the night out?” Shiro gave his own, less skillful, wink back and caused Lance to almost fall off his lap from how shocked he was that either Shiro was agreeing to it or he was so openly discussing it in front of a waitress. 

 

“Righ- right *gulp* we'll just be, ah, going.” Lance stuttered, pulling Shiro out of the restaurant and towards a cab so quickly that the older man barely had time to pay, but he still managed to give their waitress a pretty generous tip. 

 

“So… To your place?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm back and I feel more confident about this chapter then I did the last one but I SERIOUSLY NEED FEEDBACK OKAY, IS THIS ALRIGHT? WHERE DO YOU WANT ME TO TAKE IT? PLEASE HELP!!!
> 
> Yeah, please help. 
> 
> Also you can hc Keith as whatever but personally I don't think he's all that comfortable with physical affection unless he knows the person well and just isn't interested in sex all that much, but is fine with doing it. 
> 
> Shiro is rich and that gives me sequel ideas but shhh, I don't know if I'm doing a sequel!
> 
> Anyway, did you enjoy this chapter? Please give me feedback whether it's a comment (YES PLEASE), kudos (I would be thankful) or whatever else, see you next week!


	11. 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith gets some tea.

**Wednesday, 30th October, 7am:**

 

Keith never thought he'd have the pleasure of seeing his own boyfriend do the infamous walk of shame. Other students did it all the time, you couldn't travel in between dorms any time before 9am without seeing someone haphazardly dressed rushing towards their room, their hair clearly not brushed and usually not wearing shoes, instead carrying them. Which is exactly how Shiro looked when he crept through the door at 7am, clearly wanting to get showered and properly dressed before his 8am class. 

 

“I've never been more glad to be up at 7” Keith smirked from his desk, turning on his swivelly chair just as Shiro opened the door so he could take a picture of his boyfriend looking super flustered. 

 

“Ummmm” the taller man said stupidly, not quite sure what to make of the situation. Should he be trying to delete the photo? Apologise for getting in so late? Laugh with Keith? “... About Lance-”

 

“Shut it, you don't need to explain. I don't care if you slept with him, which you clearly did by the way, you talked to me about it yesterday and I said I was cool with it. Sure, I didn't think you meant you'd be having sex with him so soon, but that doesn't change anything. Plus, now I have blackmail to use against you.” assured Keith, honestly not caring since Lance was their soulmate and Keith had very little interest in sex himself. Sure, he was happy to do it once he'd gotten to know someone and it was enjoyable, he just didn't really… Care. 

 

“Right. I'm going to, uh, shower.”murmured Shiro, quickly slipping into the bathroom as to escape Keith's gaze. Usually the art student didn't tease his boyfriend, but sometimes it was just too fun. Especially when Shiro took a break from being a responsible adult with almost no flaws. 

 

“Okay, since I'm already up I might as well go to the café. See you after your class!” Keith called and waved goodbye to the shut bathroom door before he made his way out of the dorms. He didn't have any classes until the afternoon so he had some free time that he could (and should) use to finish off his art project. But procrastination was feeling better right now. 

 

**At Voltron Coffee:**

 

Keith walked through the entrance quickly, happy to escape the cold his cropped jacket wasn't protecting him from. He half hoped Lance would be serving today but he figured the Cuban man wouldn't even be awake yet unless he had class. Instead Keith ordered from Coran, the ginger man who seemed to live at the café, and got served by Matt. 

 

“Hey, Keith! You're never up this early unless you have class… What's the special occasion? Shit! I didn't forget Shiro’s birthday, did I?! Wait, no, that's February 29th… Is it your birthday by chance? Uh… Happy Birthday?” Matt rambled uselessly, and Keith watched with slight amusement and slight impatience. It was morning and he wanted his tea. 

 

“It's nobody's birthday, Matt. I was up early to make fun of Shiro, he had sex last night and I wanted to embarrass him” Matt smiled approvingly, before his eyes gleamed and he started bouncing up and down behind the counter, causing Keith's drink to splash precariously. 

 

“Oh my God! He had sex with Lance, didn't he? I knew Lance wouldn't mind doing it on the first date but Shiro… Man, I thought he'd at least pretend to be respectable.” Matt laughed some more before finally passing Keith his drink, not seeming to notice he'd spilt a good third of it in his excitement, further proving to Keith that Matt had only been hired as a batista because Allura was his soulmate. 

 

“Thanks.” Keith muttered, planning to find a quiet table he could just go sit at and look through Tumblr on. He had to see if his Zuko fanart had reached 5000 notes yet. However, his plan was thwarted when a cheery voice called out to him from across the café:

 

“Hey, Keith! Come over here!” Lance's friend (and roommate) Hunk gestured Keith over to his table for 4, where only he and that scary Pidge person sat. Seemed like a waste but the café didn't seem too crowded at all. He decided to sit with them, one because it would be rude to ignore them, and two because he wanted Lance's friends to like him. 

 

“Uh… Hey?” he greeted as he sat down next to Hunk on the bench, Pidge’s side had more room but the art student was still pretty terrified of them. Though he had to admire someone who cared so much about their friends that they didn't mind threatening gruesome murder for anyone who hurt them. 

 

“We were just talking about you! Nothing bad though.” said Hunk happily, eating what seemed to be a chocolate chip muffin, either that or it was a… Raison one… Ugh. 

 

“Yeah, and talking about what Lance was doing last night when he texted Hunk to not come back early. Or, more specifically, who he was doing. Hunk says he was fast asleep when he got back to the dorm at about 10 past 7, and when Hunk invited him out he said he was too sore to walk. He's such a drama queen” Pidge smirked and gave Hunk a side glance before turning their attention back to Keith. They didn't seem to be in a murderous mood so Keith managed to relax a little. Though he'd seen Shiro and had no doubt in his mind that Lance wasn't exaggerating. 

 

“Not me, Shiro was the one he slept with.” Keith decided throwing Shiro under the bus would be preferable to letting these two's minds wander. 

 

“Yeah, we figured as much. Shiro is Lance's type” Hunk revealed, making a little bubble of doubt inflate in Keith's chest. Did Lance like Shiro better? Sure, the two had slept together but Keith never thought of that as more deepening to a relationship then just talking. 

 

“But don't worry about that, he is head over heels for you too. Ugh, he was daydreaming about the both of you for ages before he got over himself and found it in him to collapse in Shiro’s arms.” Pidge’s words actually calmed his nerves, and gave him teasing material against Lance for future use.

 

After that the three of them talked a little more, most of it was them trying to pry details about Keith's date with Lance from Keith. Upon hearing that it was sweet and adorable (Hunk’s words) they seemed to be a confusing mixture of happy their friend was in a good relationship and annoyed he didn't do anything embarrassing enough to warrant light hearted teasing. Keith chose to keep the exact details of the date a secret, slightly afraid he'd be embarrassed. 

 

“Hey, you know what a fun thing would be for you three to do together? Every year this café has a Halloween party and you could all go!” suggested Hunk brightly, finishing off the last of his muffin and folding the wrapper into a surprisingly detailed hat. Keith had known about this party, it was tomorrow and their had been posters in the café about it since the beginning of October. He'd just never paid much attention to them since he wasn't too keen on parties. Shiro, knowing this, had not asked Keith if he wanted to go, but Keith had planned to go if Shiro asked him. Deciding it would be a fun thing to do, even if it was a party, Keith agreed to go. 

 

“Okay, sure. It's costumes, right?” Keith asked, already knowing who he'd go as. 

 

“Yes, but don't even try to drag Lance into a couples’ costume with you and Shiro. Him, Hunk and I always go as a group and we've been planning this year's since July.” said Pidge, their eyes becoming murderous for a second before Keith hastily shook his head. 

 

“Great! We'll see you tomorrow then, 8pm.” smiled Hunk, patting Pidge on the shoulder and giving Keith such a sunny expression that it threatened to give Keith's pale skin a sunburn. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! New chapter, are you proud of me? 
> 
> Somewhere in the world there's a smutty fic cataloguing the events of what I'll call chapter 10.5 ;)
> 
> I have a game for you all, the first person to correctly guess what costumes Lance, Pidge and Hunk are going to wear gets to pick any Shance, Klance or Shklance oneshot and I'll write it for them. You have to be specific, so you can't say : "the three are going as lord of the rings!" you'd have to say "Lance is Frodo, Pidge is golem and Hunk is Gandalf". 
> 
> As always comments and kudos are greatly appreciated, see you next week!


	12. 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang go to a Halloween party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this has some triggering content so be warned. There's transphobia, referenced underage drinking and implied past abuse.

**Thursday, 31st October, 8pm:**

 

Lance, Hunk and Pidge sat outside the building excitedly, music blasted from within and several college students wandered in and out of the skull adorned doors drunkenly. Allura and Matt were already inside and had been for about 20 minutes now, the party had only just begun and, for once, Lance had been right on time. But he'd decided to wait for his new boyfriends outside, and Pidge and Hunk had refused to leave him alone. The three weren't planning on drinking, despite Hunk being the legal age, but that wasn't going to stop them from having fun- it's their favourite holiday after all. Lance was wearing a scarily accurate Han Solo costume, Pidge was wearing an R2D2 outfit, and somehow didn't look absolutely ridiculous, and Hunk looked suspiciously like a werewolf but was meant to be Chewie. In short, the three of them, were massive nerds. 

 

“Wow, Shiro and Keith really must be your soulmates, Lance; they're late.” remarked Pidge scathingly, manoeuvring to brush their hair out of their face as they did so. Unsurprisingly, short robot costumes made movement difficult. 

 

“Har har har, Pidgey, they're not even late. Less than a quarter of the people are here. I told you that you could go inside and I'd wait on my own.” replied Lance, still looking out for his boyfriends. He made a mental vow never to be punctual again- waiting sucked. 

 

“You really think we'd let you wait out here in the dark on your own? This place is swarming with drunk, single people who have already bothered us 4 times in the last 20 minutes about whether or not you're free for a-” Hunk said before turning to Pidge and realising he was in the presence of a 16 year old. “A  _ dance _ ”. 

 

“Fine, but I promise you I'm capable of looking after myself.” Lance argued, crossing his arms and turning away from his friends, but he was smiling slightly from the warm feeling that came from people caring about you. 

 

The three waited another 5 minutes before Shiro and Keith arrived, and in that time an admittedly hot girl, who wasn't even drunk, dressed as Jasmine came over to flirt with Lance. Had Lance not been happily dating two great guys he would have probably reciprocated, made out and from his track record probably… Ahem, but he was with Shiro and Keith now and politely waved her away. 

 

“Hey! We, ah, didn't expect to arrive after you” greeted Shiro, smiling at Lance in his Bucky costume. He was really hot and the prosthetic arm really made the look work- though Lance decided it would be a tad distasteful to mention his boyfriend's missing arm at a party. 

 

“Yeah, we thought for sure we'd be here for at least half an hour before you arrived” Keith smirked and Pidge snickered, Lance was regretting allowing the two to meet. Keith also looked really good, he was dressed as Zuko from Avatar (which was and always will be an incredible show, Lance would have to rewatch it with him at some point) and had managed to put on some pretty realistic scar makeup. The joys of being an art major. 

 

Lance huffed and crossed his arms in mock annoyance until Keith wrapped his arm around his boyfriend's waist with a small smile and pecked him on the cheek with a kiss, causing Lance to inadvertently blush and smile. Then Shiro took one of Lance's hands and led them inside, where the party had really started. Keith took his other hand and Pidge and Hunk waved them off before going to get themselves some non alcoholic drinks. The three soulmates, however, had different ideas…

 

“Okay, Lance, there are three shots on the table- how old are you?” asked Shiro responsibly before Lance had even mentioned that he wasn't going to drink; especially not after last time… 

 

“19, and don't worry, I wasn't planning on drinking anyway. Just soda for me.” Lance reassured them, making Shiro nod. The older man then reached out and downed two of the three shots easily, barely even flinching. 

 

“Good, now I'm not having anymore- someone has to keep you two out of trouble.” Shiro said, looking over to Keith who had had his shot and was now ordering more. 

 

“Hey! I can be responsible! There was that time when I-” Lance was at a loss for the last time he'd been even slightly responsible.

 

“Lance, on our date tried to buy train tickets with monopoly money.” mentioned Keith, sipping some sort of cocktail and leaning against the counter leisurely, barely needing to raise his voice above the blaring music. 

 

“I'm just gonna pretend you're too drunk to even know what you're talking about.” Lance attempted, knowing Shiro wasn't buying it for a second. 

 

“Okay, settle down you two, we can all agree that Lance isn't the most irresponsible, or responsible, person in the world. But neither are you Keith, when we first got together I asked you how old you were, to make sure you were of drinking age, and you lied about being 21 for  _ 6 months _ .” Lance chuckled at Shiro’s words whilst Keith took another swig of his drink. 

 

“How many times do I have to apologise?” questioned Keith exasperatedly, before Lance laid his arm over his shoulder and gave him a nudge, distracting Keith enough that Shiro took his cocktail and replaced it with the very weak beer he'd ordered. Keith didn't even seem to notice. 

 

The three talked and laughed for a while more, and after an hour or two more everyone had arrived and music was blasting through most of the place. Keith, who was now ‘slightly’ tipsy, had been making out with Lance at the bar for a good 5 minutes before Lance broke away and they joined Allura and Matt on the dance floor. Matt, who had had one too many drinks and was dressed as a cliché Prince Charming, was trying to salsa with Allura (to the song ‘Thriller’), who seemed much more sober and was wearing a Cinderella costume. The two were very cute together but Lance didn't think their interactions were quite as sweet as the ones he shared with his boyfriends, but he was a little biased. Finally, at about 11pm, Lance had to leave his boyfriends because of a really important emergency. 

 

“Guys, I've got to go use the bathroom real quick, be back in a couple of minutes.” Shiro nodded and then went back to untangling Keith and Matt from one another; somehow they'd used one of Allura’s ribbons to tie their legs together as if they were in a three legged race, which was pretty hilarious when you saw them trying to dance with their partners despite it. Also, drunk Keith and drunk Matt were best friends and Lance found that simply adorable. 

 

After Lance was done in the bathroom he walked into one of the halls, the much less crowded and quieter one, intent on finding his boyfriends and tying Keith's hair into a ponytail (he'd been needing a new lockscreen for his iPhone after all). However, the hall had Lotor, who was dressed rather fittingly as Captain Hook, and his 4 cronies smoking in it, and they didn't seem particularly happy with someone barging in on them. 

 

“Uh, excuse me? And this is a no smoking area, could you please take your cigarettes outside?” Lance asked politely, stifling a cough from the noxious smoke. Even Rolo, who whenever he wasn't working had been smoking weed, didn't break smoking ban rules and always cleaned himself up afterwards. Had Rolo not been so open about his drug use Lance would've probably never guessed, and he'd made out with the guy for crying out loud. 

 

“Hey, Lancey. Going back to your new boyfriend?- Sorry, I mean boyfriends.” smiled Lotor, getting up and sliding over to Lance who took an inadvertent but cautious step back. 

 

“Yeah, so I need to get past. And since when did you start smoking?” Lance said, less polite because he didn't like the way Lotor was looking at him. It reminded him of when he first met the guy. 

 

“Oh, you know, a little after we broke up, not because I was upset, of course, but because I needed something to spend money on if I wasn't buying gifts for you anymore, Lancey.” Lotor snarled and took another step forward, really freaking Lance out but he couldn't move backwards anymore, he'd hit a wall. Lotor’s friends were watching eagerly, as if waiting for Lotor to tear the Cuban man limb from limb, which didn't seem exceptionally unlikely judging by the creepy glint in Lotor’s eye and how the green glow of the lantern above them made his face look like a skull. 

 

“Look, I'm sorry I broke it off with you. But we just weren't a good pair- and you insulted my friend for having no soulmate mark; that was unforgivable.” Replied Lance, trying to stand his ground but he was really scared by now, Lotor didn't have the most control. The conversation at hand was actually reminding Lance of a similar one he had with his ex-girlfriend, Nyma. She had also insulted Pidge about the same thing, which had caused Lance to break things off with her and date her much nicer brother. In the midst of his fear Lance vaguely recognised that Nyma and Lotor would be perfect for each other, and might even be soulmates, but didn't tell Lotor since he was a shitty human being. 

 

“Ah yes, Pidgey. Poor little girl, a freak as well. But not as much as you're Lancey, you with your 2 soulmate marks- you're a mistake. I've known Shiro and Keith since they began dating and they'd be perfectly happy without you, they're just pitiful of how desperate you are. It's not like they actually care about you, I however, I gave you everything and you weren't even my soulmate. But I'm glad we stopped dating, you're the filth beneath my shoes, you're not even worth one soulmate, let alone two. The only reason the universe gave you two marks was so you could have twice the heartbreak. Now run along, Lancey, I'm sure you want to see your boyfriends as much as possible before they dump you like the dirt you are.” Lotor cupped Lance's cheek in his hand menacingly, wiping away the tears welling in his eyes with fake hook carefully before pushing Lance's head into the wall behind him, causing the shorter man to crumple whilst Lotor and his friends laughed and left through the side door, leaving Lance alone. 

 

Lance sat on the floor, sobbing heavily into his hands and making his headache from hitting the wall even worse, for a long while afterwards. Lotor had circled all of his worst insecurities and shoved them in his face- it was much too reminiscent of back when they were dating. Lance would never believe Shiro or Keith could ever treat him as badly as Lotor did, but he really was starting to believe they were just with him out of pity. After all, why else would they stay with such a loser? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well.... I said there'd be angst....
> 
> Also I'm late! By a day but I'm still sorry, I was ill and I wanted this chapter to be good so I waited. I'm still kind of ill so if there are mistakes blame that.
> 
> You're all terrible at guessing but I Iove you anyway!
> 
> I watched avatar for the first time and I am LIVING! Zuko is my son tbh.
> 
> As always comments and kudos are appreciated greatly, thanks for reading! See you next week! :))


	13. 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is acting strangely.

**Friday, 8th November, 11pm:**

 

Lance hadn’t been seen by his boyfriends in a week, and they were getting a little worried…

 

“Did we do something wrong? Maybe we took things too far or did I not try hard enough!?” questioned Keith hysterically, pacing about his and Shiro’s dorm room after having left yet another text for Lance:

 

_ Hey, it’s Keith. But you obviously know that. _

 

_ I just woke up from a pretty awful hangover, where did you go last night? _

 

_ Shiro said you went to the bathroom but about 20 minutes later texted to say you weren’t feeling well and had left. _

 

_ He tried calling but you declined. _

 

_ We could have taken you back home, you know? It’s really no bother. _

 

_ Or if you’re sick we could get some soup or something. Sick people like soup, right? _

 

_ Hey, you didn’t reply to my texts a few days ago. _

 

_ But Hunk said you’re not ill. You’re just being ‘distant’. _

 

_ If you don’t want to see us right now it’s fine, we just want to know that you’re okay. _

 

_ We’re really worried. _

 

_ Hey, it’s been about 5 days since we last saw you. Are you avoiding us? _

 

_ You’ve only been taking shifts at the cafe whenever Shiro and I are in class. _

 

_ Hunk and Pidge haven’t seen much of you either, you’re always in your room or in class. _

 

_ Hey again _

 

_ I’m really sorry for whatever I did wrong _

 

_ I just really like you _

 

He sighed at his last text in exasperation, throwing his phone down onto the double bed and flopping down on top of it. Shiro walked over and patted his head kindly, but Keith could tell they were equally tense and both in need of some venting. Just as he was about to say something supportive and kind to Shiro, probably along the lines of ‘it’ll be okay’, his phone buzzed from beneath his stomach and chirped loudly in the quiet room, causing Shiro to jump up abruptly and fall from his perch beside Keith on the bed, accidentally slipping onto the floor in his confusion. They’d been waiting for a text for a week, and now they had finally gotten what they wanted. Keith scrambled around the quilt looking for his phone, and opened up the new text message. Thankfully it really was from Lance and not just from the pizza place offering yet another coupon for a pepperoni pizza to share (when were they gonna figure out Keith only went to their restaurant for the delicious garlic bread? He absolutely detested pizza!). The message from Lance read:

 

_ You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s my fault. I’m sorry. _

 

“We’re gonna go find him.” Announced Shiro after reading the message, before Keith could even squeak in protest Shiro was shoving his jacket into his arms and walking towards the door

 

“But… He obviously doesn’t want to see us! When I want to be left alone I expect to be left alone, we can’t go intrude on him like this, Shiro!” He argued, blocking the door momentarily before Shiro easily picked him up and placed him aside. 

 

“Well, Lance isn’t like you. Something tells me when he’s upset he refuses company and support, instead wanting to fester in his own problems over ‘burdening’ anyone else.” Keith could appreciate where Shiro was coming from, it did make a weird kind of sense that Keith didn’t quite comprehend but believed could exist.

 

“Okay, fine.” Keith offered, pulling on his red jacket and mentally preparing himself for the likely emotional conversation he was about to willingly participate in.

 

“And when I say ‘find’, I don’t mean barge into his dorm yelling about whatever has him down, I mean politely knocking and asking what’s up, alright, Keith?” Shiro clarified helpfully, that had been exactly what Keith was going to do, so he wasn’t sure whether to be pleased that his boyfriend knew him so well or to be offended that he immediately thought Keith would be inclined to do something stupidly reckless. To save himself a headache the younger man decided to stay neutral and just carry on towards Lance’s dorm, that they were only a few minutes away from by this point.

 

__

  
  


Shiro was the one who knocked, placing his prosthetic arm on Keith’s chest to prevent him from rushing in, which he suspected was likely knowing the younger man’s past. To the couple’s disappointment it was Hunk who opened the door, and even more disappointing, Hunk was void of his usual cheery exterior as it seemed to have been replaced by a dreary expression of discontentment. As if not surprised by their sudden arrival, he waved them in without speaking, upon entering the dorm they saw Pidge sat at the table- not on any type of device for once, and glowering at them murderously. Off in the corner of the room Allura was also sat, still in her cafe apron (pale pink with baby blue trim), and for once she looked disheveled and windswept.

 

“Lance left here about 10 minutes ago, he looked even more down than usual and was typing something into his phone. Pidge and I called Allura to see if he went over there as soon as he left and she insisted on coming over. We figured since he wasn’t at the cafe or going to class the only reason he’d leave is if he thought you were coming over.” Hunk explained tiredly, pausing rub his eyes halfway through, only then did Keith realise it was almost midnight. His own sleep schedule was so broken that he hadn’t even registered someone responsible and constantly well rested like Hunk might think of midnight as ‘late’.

 

“Yeah, so what did you two do?” interrogated Pidge, their voice steady but cold as murder itself, the sound was daunting coming from such a deceivingly small and cute-looking person.

 

“Wha- We didn’t do anything! I don’t think so anyway… Did we!?” Rambled Keith, who was having unsurprising trouble controlling his thoughts and then properly translating them into cohesive sentences.

 

Keith continued stuttering to Pidge, who was still glaring angrily in the couple’s direction, and Shiro shared a look with Hunk. Allura was interacting with none of the others and instead seemed to be texting Matt about if Lance had shown up, but she didn’t look particularly hopeful.

 

“Okay, I think we all need to calm down and figure this all out. So Lance left without a word about where he was headed and we know he’s not got class, he’s not gone to the cafe and if he went to our dorm we would have passed him on the way here. I think the best way to find out where he’s gone is to figure out why he left.” Negotiated Shiro, to which Pidge gave a short nod and Allura put away her phone.

 

“He left because he was upset, his timing shows he sent that text to me as he left here so something I sent him was probably what caused him to leave.” Said Keith a little apprehensively since he didn’t want to be blamed for whatever state Lance was in. Then again, if he was somehow the cause he wanted to know so he could have Pidge punch him in the face later for his misdeeds.

 

“I don’t think your texts were the root of the problem, he’s been off all week. We need to find out what he was originally sad about.” guessed Hunk after scrolling through the texts, moving to sit over at the table with Pidge. Shiro, Allura and Keith followed suite, the guys sitting decidedly far away from Pidge to avoid injury.

 

“He left abruptly at the party and that’s when he began acting weird. Has he ever acted like this before?” Shiro questioned, which caused the girls and Hunk to share a wary look.

 

“Yeah… His first few months here at college, he dated this guy called Lotor-” began Hunk, before Keith interrupted.

 

“We know him! Long white hair, tall, kind of an asshole?” Asked Keith, finally more at ease but still nervous.

 

“More like entirely an asshole.” spat Pidge, clenching their fists.

 

“Yeah… You see, we knew Lance before college, in fact, I’ve known him for years. He was always getting himself into trouble, falling for the wrong people, flirting with anything that breathed. He started dating Lotor and it seemed like he’d finally found a good guy, even if he wasn’t his true soulmate, the guy was charming and suave, everything Lance wanted. But behind Lance’s back he was a total creep, he called Pidge a ‘she’ constantly and insulted my weight. Yet whenever Lance was there he basically morphed into the sweetest boyfriend ever, had we told Lance what was going on he would have broken up with him instantly but…” Hunk trailed off and looked to Pidge and Allura who seemed similarly melancholy.

 

“He was just so happy we didn’t want to ruin it for him. And Lotor seemed nice to him at least, but not for the last month of their relationship-” Pidge started, now fiddling with the zip on their green cat hoodie, it was technically Matt’s but they seemed to have claimed it as their own.

 

“Did he hurt him!?” Interrupted Keith, suddenly filled with rage for Lotor and fear for Lance.

 

“Not physically we don’t think, but he started saying things… Like Lance was lucky to have him and should be thankful, that he should be spending all his time with him and that without Lotor Lance would be nothing and have no one, he was totally unlovable and Lotor only put up with him for sex-” Pidge paused from what they were saying, or more accurately: venting frustratedly, to slam their fist down on the table in a burst of understandable anger. “Maybe now you can see why I was a little protective of him when I found out you were gonna be in a relationship.”

 

Keith thought back to the letter Pidge had given them when they had first encountered them as Lance’s soulmates, it had seemed a little too extreme- even from a very protective friend. He wondered slowly if Pidge gave them that because it was what they wished they could have done with Lotor, like they could’ve prevented all of Lance’s pain if they’d just been more threatening from the beginning. Meanwhile, Keith felt like stamping on Lotor’s face when he next saw him at practice, or maybe he’d just hunt him down now and do it.

 

“Is there anywhere Lance might go, if he’s feeling upset? How did it go down last time?” Asked Shiro civilly, though his dark eyes were charged with hatred.

 

“Last time Lance never came back from his date with Lotor, not super surprising considering how much time he spent at his dorm. But around 3am I got a text telling me he needed help getting home. Lotor and him had had their date straight after Lance’s drama class, but Lotor surprised him with a picnic in the changing rooms. Lance had a lot of alcohol and then Lotor still wanted to have sex even though he was totally sober. Lance refused, for once he just didn’t feel like it. Luckily Lotor didn’t push him physically, or force him, but he did say a bunch of mean, manipulative things that made Lance apologize for his forgiveness, beg him not to be too angry with him. Lotor left Lance feeling worthless and locked him in the changing rooms pretty drunk and alone. It took him ages to even considering calling me… The next day we talked and Lance broke up with him. Over text, of course, we weren’t letting that asshole anywhere near him ever again. This was all over a year ago, and since then Lance has had the displeasure of bumping into Lotor a few times, he’d never want to be alone with him but he’s okay now. He’s gotten past it and become stronger, smarter and happier. When similar stuff happened with Nyma he broke it off immediately, or more accurately kept dating her but also slept with her brother a whole bunch, not even trying to be secretive… It was a little weird for a while, I guess…” explained Hunk.

  
  


Keith saw red. Like from before finding Lance and Shiro when he could only see in shades of red, but now the scarlet that had seeped into his vision was emotionally caused. If he was to paint something in that moment it would have been a black and crimson scrawl across a ripped canvas.

 

“Well then, let’s check the drama changing rooms, seems like our best, and only, bet.” Keith decided before getting up and heading for Hunk and Lance’s front door, barely giving the others time to register his actions before he was out in the hall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter! On time! Are you proud?
> 
> Angst because when I start I can't stop I'm s o r r y. But there's a happy ending, I swear!
> 
> And you were all getting so shocked by Pidge's note.... Look at me planning ahead.
> 
> Btw this was originally supposed to be the first bit of the chapter where they actually talked to Lance but it went on too long so you have this for now.
> 
> Comments and kudos make me super happy! I love all of you.
> 
> And @yaas, the commenter who got closest to the right answer for the costumes last chapter, I owe you a one shot. Comment below what you'd like (or if you're not bothered, but I'd love some prompts tbh) and I'll figure out some way to make sure you see the final product.
> 
> See you all next week! :))


	14. 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is upset.

**Saturday, 9th November, 12am:**

 

Lance sat, crying heavily, in the drama changing rooms, tears rolling down his reddened cheeks and sobs wracking against his body. Lotor had been right, Shiro and Keith didn't need him, he was just the third wheel in the relationship. But Keith had been  _ sorry _ , Lance had, according to Keith's text, made Keith feel like he’d done something wrong, which was unforgivable on Lance's part. Keith was amazing, Shiro was amazing, the person who'd severed the three’s connections and ignored everybody for a week was Lance - so why were they the ones who felt sorry? Maybe they felt guilty about being happier without him, or at least cared enough to feel bad that Lance would never find love again? 

 

Lance sat in silence for a few more minutes, his tears slowing minutely, before he heard clanging from outside the room, a telltale sign someone was walking down the hall above him. He figured it must be the janitor since, strictly speaking, students weren't supposed to be in this building after hours without explicit permission. Then again, Lance didn't hear the rattle of the janitor’s cart and there seemed to be too many footsteps for just one person. Before he could rush off, sure campus security would be down there any second to scold him and send him back to his dorm, whilst muttering about annoying, enthusiastic drama students working all night, the lock on the door started to jangle (before audibly breaking) and his friends burst in. 

 

First Hunk rushed over and trapped Lance in a hug with his incredibly strong arms, arms he'd probably used to break the lock, Lance reciprocated, nuzzling into his shoulder until Pidge joined them and started hugging him too after a muffled warning about never leaving again. Then Allura stormed over, lightly slapping Lance's arm, and squashed him even more than Hunk had. It wasn't until several minutes later Lance even noticed the two figures waiting awkwardly in the corner of the room. 

 

“What are you doing here?” Lance sniffled, pulling away from the hug, with much difficulty, and addressing everyone in the room. 

 

“You left in the middle of the night without a word and then ignored all of our many texts.” stated Pidge, rolling their eyes but wiping them too, Lance felt absolutely rotten he'd made his friends cry. Who does that? 

 

“And you were acting strangely all week.” Added Allura, stroking his hair softly in comfort. 

 

“And maybe we were worried, okay?!” Muttered Keith loudly from where he was leant against the wall, staring at the floor like he might be crying too. Seriously could Lance get any shittier as a person? 

 

“... I'm sorry… I shouldn't have worried you like that… It’s my fault….” Lance apologised sadly, turning away from everyone. Shiro was the one to come over. 

 

“No, we, Keith and I, we're sorry. I don't know what happened that made you feel like we didn't want you around but since you felt like it then that means we're not doing our jobs right, we just want you to be happy - but you've been upset for the last week and we've barely done anything except for texting and trying to catch you at the café. We should have tried harder to be better soulmates- I should…” Shiro’s voice started cracking so, instead of sitting, looking at his lap, Lance budged over to where Shiro had sat next to him and wrapped his long arms around his torso, muttering soft apologies about making him so sad. 

 

“You still don't get it, do you? We are worried about you, we want to know what happened because we care.” Keith explained, crossing his arms and trying to frown but there was a soft, pleading look in his violet eyes. 

 

Lance pondered that for a moment, he thought he'd be making his soulmates happy by leaving them alone but instead they seemed more upset than he could've ever imagined them being. And his friends, his incredible friends, they cared too- they had all come over here to cry and cuddle with him even though he'd been basically ignoring all of them for a week. Maybe Lotor had been wrong. Maybe they all needed him too, he wasn't a freak or useless or a 7th wheel but actually an important person who deserved love, even if he'd upset his friends. 

 

“I… At the Halloween party I saw Lotor… He said- he said I… I was a freak and Shiro and Keith didn't… They didn't want me…” He ended up sobbing the last part into Shiro’s shoulder, whilst Keith rushed over to comfort him too. Then his friends all joint the pile, whispering furiously about how Lotor was an ass and they loved Lance so much that if he ever forgot it they'd write a message telling him on his forehead with Lotor’s blood. Part of Lance hoped they weren't kidding. 

 

“Lance, you're our soulmate but, more importantly, you're our boyfriend. We chose to be with you, you offered to leave us be but we dated you anyway - because we  _ wanted  _ to. We didn't get stuck with you, we chose to be with you, okay? And, if it's okay with you, we're going to stay with you.” Promised Shiro, moving Lance's chin so they were eye to eye. 

 

“Of course it's okay with me, I- I love you.” said Lance tearfully, being soulmates amplified feelings, sure, but he wasn't expecting Shiro and Keith to reciprocate yet. 

 

“We love you too.” replied Keith, wrapping his arms around Lance's neck and pulling him in for a long,passionate kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter! But this was meant to be one whole chapter with chapter 13 so....
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it anyway! The penultimate (2nd to last) chapter of this fanfiction, there will be sequel (that will be posted in the 'Just Your Average College Life' collection this fic is in) but it may be a few months before the first chapter of that comes out.
> 
> I've actually been pretty busy with a new fanfiction I'm doing with avatar that's going to be LONG, it's an au where Zuko (my angsty son) is the avatar so if you're interested in that it should be on my profile and it's called Avatar Zuko (see how creative I am?). Both the introduction and the first chapter are out and I've written a bunch more...
> 
> Anyway, shameless self promotion aside, I hope you liked this, comments and kudos are always appreciated, see you next week! :))


	15. 15 (The Last One)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Allura and Matt's engagement party.

**9th November, 7pm:**

 

“Okay, so who wants to toast?” Asked Hunk to the table of people at Allura and Matt’s engagement party. 

 

Lance, Shiro and Pidge stood up simultaneously, and then glared at one another, though their expressions held no malice. Everyone around the table looked at the three expectantly, and Keith looked about ready to break out into full blown laughing at his boyfriends, yet he refrained. 

 

“As Matt’s sibling, I'm the one who gets to tell embarrassing stories about him.  Argued Pidge, smirking and about to go into a story about their brother, until they were interrupted. 

 

“Ah, yes, but I'm Matt’s best friend and best man, so I should get to make the toast.” Replied Shiro, all of their friends now looked at Lance to see if he would also pitch in as to why he should make the toast. 

 

“Well, guys, I'm Allura’s man of honour and I'm by far the best storyteller, so I should get to embarrass the happy couple.” The debate might have kept going, it was just as entertaining as the toast promised to be, but Allura interrupted. 

 

“He's my fiancé, so I get to pick who tells this story.” She smiled evilly, looking between each of the candidates whilst pondering. Pidge would by far embarrass Matt the most, Shiro would be the most truthful and Lance would make Allura out to be the best version of herself, so who to choose… 

 

“You know what?! I'm doing the toast so none of you drag my name through the mud too much, okay?” Matt broke in, for once looking mortified with the amount of attention he was getting. Pidge attempted to talk, but he clinked his glass loudly to silence them. 

 

“Fine.” The group muttered unenthusiastically, preparing to ask Pidge, Lance and Shiro for their versions of events later on. 

 

“Okay then, it all started a little over a year ago…”

 

__

  
  


_ 1 Year and 2 Months Ago, 4pm: _

 

_Matt walked through the doors of the café quickly, happy to escape the cold. The building was overcrowded, students lounging on every piece of furniture (even the tables) and several of them were loudly complaining about not getting their order yet. A beautiful woman worked behind the counter, her silver-white hair (“_ look I'm going to describe everything in colour, since that how I see it now. But yes, back then her hair looked pale green blah blah blah, now can I get on with my story?”) _seemed long but it was up in a messy bun, falling out into little tendrils. Her eyes were blue like lightning, bright and quick and, currently, murderous. Some obnoxious guy, Sendak Matt was pretty sure, was flirting with her and refusing to back off. Matt prepared himself to become Captain America and punch his ass (or more like get his own ass kicked) when his brilliant plans were interrupted when Sendak reached out to adjust the strap on the pale pink apron the girl sported, and she twisted his wrist with such ferocity and precision that a loud crack rung out about the room, as well as the man's yelp of pain._

 

_ “Now get the hell out of my café. Next customer please.” She said the last bit sweetly, smiling at a rather muscular girl with pigtails who had just approached the counter.  _

 

_ Behind the extraordinary woman, two men were hurriedly bustling about, tripping over themselves and each other in their haste. Matt was taken aback by how many attractive people seemed to work at the café; he usually just had instant coffee or got the crappy stuff from the college cafeteria, but ever since his younger sibling moved in with him they always came here for ‘the good stuff’, and today they had sent Matt out to fetch it. And if this was how hot the workers were, Matt would be making daily visits. The guy he had seen had a deep caramel tan, his short brown hair curled slightly at the ends and his eyes, well, Matt had thought the girl had pretty eyes. His were like the ocean, they shimmered blue and vast, peaceful and tranquil, whilst also being mysterious and deadly. But, similarly to the woman (more of a Wonder Woman to be honest) he was very dishevelled, his blue apron half undone and carrying 5 trays of drinks with a scary amount of balance.  _

 

_ “Allura, where am I taking orders 17, 26, 42, 44 and 50?!” He yelled at the woman, assumedly Allura, before hearing a chorus of complaints from the customers, all of which were about where their drinks were.  _

 

_ “Marmora table, lion table, Altea table, Balmora and gulra table. Look, we are sorry but we're understaffed, we should have hired someone new by tomorrow!” Allura apologised to the entire café. “Lance, code ‘Rover’.” _

 

_ The hot guy carrying drinks from earlier, Lance apparently, went over to the doors hurriedly and switched the sign to ‘closed’, probably so they could deal with their current customers before gaining anymore. Another man, this one middle aged and surprisingly ginger (and covered in milk from the looks of his skin and orange apron, had someone thrown it at him?), slipped into the back room, at which Lance and Allura both audibly groaned despite being in such a noisy room.  _

 

_ “He's not gonna have more drinks for another 4 minutes! What should we do?!”  Asked/yelled Lance when Allura made her way over to him, since they wouldn't be getting any new orders she didn't have to man the counter.  _

 

_ “There's nothing we can do, look, all we have to do is finish these people's orders by six, which should be easy enough, and then we're interviewing new baristas so this kind of thing never happens again.” Allura’s words gave Matt an idea.  _

 

_He'd been meaning to get a job, it would feel good to earn his own money and be responsible, not to mention being a better role model for Pidge. Plus, this place clearly needed extra staff and if he worked here he could flirt with Allura, and maybe Lance too, and meet a bunch of new people as well. So it was decided, he'd interview for a job and until then, he'd wait at a table with the shy, muscly girl (_ “Yes, Hunk it was Shay please let me finish!”) _from earlier for 6pm to strike._

 

_ __ _

  
  


_ 1 Year and 2 Months Ago, 6pm: _

 

_ Finally Allura had shooed the last of their customers out of the door and was left with a roomful of job applicants. By roomful she meant 6 people, probably because they'd only started advertising yesterday. A couple looked like they actually wanted the job but most of them were undressing either Lance or herself with their eyes. Which reminded her of that guy earlier, he'd almost touched her soulmate mark (which was located right over her heart) when he’d been trying to ‘adjust’ her apron strap. The only reason a guy would touch where her soulmate mark was located was if they were trying to feel her up, which meant she was destined to fall for a creep. Which was… Depressing, to say the least.  _

 

_ Allura interviewed the first 5 people, only one of which was any good. A guy called Rolo, who seemed nice and laid back but also charismatic and hardworking like Lance, she was already ready to hire him, but there was one guy left. He was short, he had slightly tousled hair and mischievous grin on his face when Allura reentered the café from the back room (where they were doing interviews) he was talking to Lance.  _

 

_  “You know, this might be the caffeine talking but I like you a ‘latte’.” He flirted, winking at Lance who laughed and blushed a little.  _

 

_ “Sorry, dude, but I'm taken.” He mentioned, patting the guy on the shoulder before getting up and walking over to where Allura stood with her arms crossed.  _

 

_ “Should we even bother interviewing him?” She asked with a sigh, and Lance only snickered in response before calling to the guy, Matt apparently, to talk with Allura.  _

 

_ Since he was the last one, and since talking to him probably wouldn't take too long, Allura decided to just interview him in the café’s main area. Surprisingly, Matt acted professional and kindly, they role played an order and he was very polite but had a cute goofy smile. He would have been a good employee, had he had any skill at making coffee at all. Some people could be trained to be good baristas, you could teach them how to make a delicious frappuccino, but Matt, unfortunately, was hopeless.  _

 

_ “You could make an excellent employee, but sadly-” She started, actually feeling bad about rejecting him but knowing it was for the best.  _

 

_ “Please! One more chance?” He interrupted pleadingly, and Allura felt her heart soften just a little.  _

 

_ “Okay, one more chance.” She resolved, sitting back in her chair as Matt tried to make her a simple black coffee with one sugar.  _

 

_ It might have been an okay brew, but Matt forgot to boil the water when preparing it. So, when he brought it over to Allura, she decided to be a little evil.  _

 

_ “How does it taste? A good barista should be able to tell a good coffee from a bad one on their own.” She said sneakily, gesturing for him to drink up.  _

 

_ He did so eagerly, taking a large gulp before his face contorted in disgust as he spit his mouthful all over Allura. To make things worse, in his confusion he managed to spill the rest of the mug all over her too, leaving her seething and annoyed. She could hear a snicker from Lance behind the counter and she reminded herself to punch him.  _

 

_ “Oh my God! I'm so sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Let me just…” He apologised profusely, grabbing a bunch of fairly expensive napkins and trying to dry off Allura’s now soaked apron.  _

 

_ But, when he tried, they were both engulfed with shock, as their worlds lit up with seemingly a thousand colours, and they were realised to be soulmates.  _

 

_ __ _

  
  


**Present Day:**

 

“...And she still didn't hire me! We were soulmates and she still hired Rolo, I had to work voluntarily for months before I got so much as a dime!” Matt finished explaining, to a mixture of reactions the scariest of which from Shiro and Keith. 

 

“You. Flirted. With. Our. Boyfriend?” Asked Keith with a sharp glare, stroking his butter knife threateningly. 

 

“Ugh, worse than that, his actual pick up line was ‘I can't see in colour, but with you it's like I'm riding a rainbow’, it was seriously stupid. Then he had the audacity to tell this story using one of my, far superior, pick up lines.” Complained Lance dramatically, leaning against Shiro’s shoulder, hangs against his forehead, for extra effect.

 

The group ate their meal happily after that, joking about Matt and praising Allura on her wrist breaking technique. Until, at the very end of the night, everyone had some announcements. 

 

“So, Matt and I will be moving into Matt and Pidge’s apartment.” Allura concluded, earning an exaggerated sigh from Pidge.

 

“Yep, now I get to be third wheel supreme.” They said sarcastically, but they were actually really happy for their brother. 

 

“And… Shay and I will be moving in next door to them.” Announced Hunk with a nervous smile, but everyone beamed. 

 

“Well , since you're all moving into the same apartment building off campus, Keith, Lance and I thought it best to do the same… So we're all also moving next door to you.” Everyone cheered at Shiro’s words, the group of friends happy to be so close to each other- literally and figuratively. 

 

“Yeah, it's super convenient that they had a bunch of spare, affordable apartments so close to each other, right?” Joked Lance. 

 

__

  
  


**11pm:**

 

Lance, Shiro and Keith sat quietly on the train, happy to just be in each others presence. But then Shiro and Keith got up before their usual stop. 

 

“Where are you-” Began Lance, before he was interrupted by a kiss from Shiro. 

 

“Don't worry, we've just got this one errand to run. You have a key to our dorm, right? We'll meet you there later.” Said Keith, also kissing Lance before leaving the train.

 

Lance spent the rest of his ride home wondering what kind of errand his soulmates could be doing at almost midnight… 

 

__

  
  


**The Next Day:**

 

The College Blog had an article that read:

 

_ One of our most prominent students, Lotor Prince, was badly beaten by two assumed muggers, both masked, and left in an alley overnight. This morning Lotor was found with several broken ribs, a fractured collarbone, a cracked mandible and a sprained wrist- but none of his injuries were lethal and no weapons seemed to have been used. He claimed his money was stolen, $257 dollars in cash as well as his driving licence, and strangely enough the soup kitchen two streets over got a donation of that exact amount a few minutes after Lotor was attacked. Police found no evidence and have written it off as a mugging, it's likely we'll never find out the identities of the attackers. But, at least we can all agree, if anyone deserved to be beaten up in an alley it was Lotor.  _

 

_ Written by Anonymous.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last chapter of this fic... I'm so proud :')
> 
> It's been a lot of fun to write, and is probably the fluffiest thing I've ever written, but now it's time for change. So, for that reason, it will probably be a while before the sequel comes out, which I honestly think is a good thing; if I tried to write it now my current lack of enthusiasm would show, it just wouldn't be very good.
> 
> Every single person who read this, who left kudos and especially those who write such kind, motivating comments, you are all the reason I ever found it within myself to finish this. You gave me drive, determination, and I'm so thankful to all of you. 
> 
> This is usually where I'd say 'see you next week :))', but I won't see you next week. So instead have a great time, do things that make you happy, explore your creativity, watch season 5 of Voltron on March 2nd and, most importantly, try new things- you want to write a fanfiction? Do it. You want to draw fanart of baby Lance? Do it. You want to help me come up with a third thing? Please do it.
> 
> I'm beginning to sound preachy so I'll leave it here, bye! :'))

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, hi!!! I'm writing fluffy fanfiction for once! 
> 
> What is happening to me?!? 
> 
> Any support is greatly appreciated and I love kudos and comments, they give me life and encourage me to keep going :))


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